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MINNEAPOLIS 


The Story of a City 


COMPILED BY WORKERS OF THE WRITERS’ 
PROGRAM OF THE WORK PROJECTS ADMIN¬ 
ISTRATION IN THE STATE OF MINNESOTA 




OFFICIAL SPONSOR, MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
CO-SPONSOR, MINNEAPOLIS BOARD OF EDUCATION 

19 4 0 




•Ms Vl^ 


FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY 
John M. Carmody, Administrator 

WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION 
F. C. Harrington, Commissioner 
Florence Kerr, Assistant Commissioner 
S. L. Stolte, State Administrator 




Foreword 


In the modern progress of a large city, the stirring and signifi¬ 
cant events of its earlier growth often are little heard of or are 
quickly forgotten by the very people who benefit most from the 
hard-won achievements of its pioneers. 

A comprehensive history such as Minneapolis: The Story of a 
City , made easily available to the people of the community, becomes 
a valuable contribution to their knowledge, a permanent record of 
the community’s origin and development. The book’s account of 
obstacles overcome, of continuous growth from year to year, pro¬ 
vides a stimulus for still further growth and improvement. 

To people living elsewhere who may see this book, it will, I 
believe, be an invitation to consider Minneapolis as a good place in 
which to live, or an interesting place to visit—a point of some 
importance in consideration of Minneapolis’ present active effort to 
attract new residents, new business, and more vacation visitors. 

The casual reader of this book, even though he enjoy and profit 
by its contents, scarcely will understand the vast amount of careful 
study and research, the thought and planning given to its contents 
and arrangement, and the long hours of writing, editing and revi¬ 
sion which made it the well done volume that it is. 

The Minnesota Writers’ Project of the Work Projects Adminis¬ 
tration is to be complimented on its creation and production of 
Minneapolis: The Story of a City. The Minneapolis Board of Edu¬ 
cation and the Minneapolis Public Schools personnel are glad to have 
been able to co-operate in this educational project. 

Carroll R. Reed, 
Superintendent of the 
Minneapolis Public Schools. 


Preface 


In presenting this highlighted history of century-old Minneapo¬ 
lis, the Minnesota Writers’ Project feels that it may be offering the 
reader something a modest bit out of the ordinary. As history itself, 
the work is obviously unpretentious. It is not possible in a hundred 
pages to treat very exhaustively the story of a hundred years in the 
life of a large city. 

Yet it is suggested that the discerning reader may discover, even 
in this small volume, a definite contribution to the writing of history 
in the Northwest. The primary framework upon which it has been 
built is a certain Project file we call the Minnesota Newspaper 
Annals. We like to feel that this book speaks eloquently, on page 
after page, of the value of the Annals, not merely in the writing of 
this particular work, nor even of all the other Project books to 
follow, but in the writing of Minnesota history for many, many 
years to come. Leading librarians of the state, having sensed its 
richness as a source of historical material, are already seeking to 
obtain custody of our Annals file at the time when it shall have 
served its Project purposes. 

The Minnesota Newspaper Annals are made up of many thou¬ 
sands of items upon a wide variety of subjects, culled by our re¬ 
search workers from the files of early Minnesota newspapers. These 
have been copied word for word from the fragile, yellowed pages 
of old newspaper volumes, and classified and filed in our office under 
a comprehensive index. A few years from now, the original sources 
may in many cases have crumbled away or become illegible; in the 
form to which we have now reduced them, these selected items can 
be bound and preserved for perhaps another hundred years. 

Liberal quotations from contemporary comment can be used to 
enliven almost any history text; they tend to breathe vitality into 
pages which might otherwise be dry and lifeless. The things an editor 
had to say about his own times may recreate the atmosphere of a 
given period much more effectively than page upon page of hearsay 
description. It is in recognition of this principle that we have drawn 
so freely upon Annals material in compiling Minneapolis: The Story 
of a City. 

In acknowledging our debt to those who have had a hand in the 
building of this book, we therefore bow first to Miss Ethel Hepburn, 
the former Project member who had a principal part in organizing 


and promoting the Minnesota Newspaper Annals, and to Mr. Harlan 
R. Crippen, who in the writing of the manuscript has so neatly 
demonstrated the usefulness of these Annals as historical building 
material. 

We are also grateful, of course, to a good many others: to Mr. 
Carl Vitz, librarian of the Minneapolis Public Library, and his staff, 
and especially to Miss Ruth Thompson, in charge of the Minne¬ 
apolis Collection, for unfailing courtesy and helpfulness in the 
selection of pictures; 

To Dr. Arthur J. Larsen, superintendent of the Minnesota His¬ 
torical Society, and library staff, and in particular to Dr. Grace Lee 
Nute, curator of manuscripts, Mr. Willoughby Babcock, curator, 
and Mrs. Louise Blad, assistant curator of the museum, for their 
assistance in preparation of the manuscript and selection of pictures; 

To Mr. Clement Haupers, regional supervisor of the WPA Art 
Program and state supervisor of the Minnesota WPA Art Project, 
to Mr. Leroy Turner, assistant state supervisor and staff; 

To Mr. Alexis Caswell, secretary and business manager, Manu¬ 
facturers’ Association of Minneapolis, Inc., for useful information 
graciously given; 

To Mr. Ben Ferriss, publicity director of the Minneapolis Civic 
and Commerce Association, for permission to reproduce the skyline 
photograph of Minneapolis; to Mr. Julius Weitzner of New York 
City, by whose kind permission we were able to reproduce Seth 
Eastman’s painting of Fort Snelling; and to Harper and Brothers, 
New York City, for allowing us to use the picture of the Republican 
convention of 1892; 

To Mr. Lee Grove, former assistant Project supervisor, who edited 
the manuscript; 

Finally and especially, to Mr. Carroll R. Reed, superintendent of 
schools, Minneapolis Board of Education, whose unflagging interest 
and helpfulness far exceeded any obligations that might have been 
his as representative of the co-sponsor of this book. 

To these and many others who have helped, our sincere thanks. 
May they all feel that Minneapolis: The Story of a City is a credit¬ 
able product of the joint efforts of all of us. 

THE MINNESOTA WPA WRITERS’ PROJECT 
Roscoe Macy, State Supervisor 






CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Foreword --------- 3 

Preface ------- - - 4 

THIS NEW WORLD - 9 

POWER AND AUTHORITY -.12 

THEY CAME FROM NEW ENGLAND - - - - 28 

FROM THESE WILDERNESSES ----- 43 
MIGHTY KINGDOMS WILL EMERGE - - - - 61 

Illustrations - 78-82 

Notes on Illustrations - - - - - - - 83 

Suggested Reading and Bibliography - - - - 85 

Index . 89 


Cover by the Minnesota WPA Art Project 







This New World 

Early Exploration 

"To what power or authority this new world will become dependent 
after it has arisen from its present uncultivated state, time alone can 
discover. . . . There is no doubt that at some future period, mighty 
kingdoms will emerge from these wildernesses, and stately palaces and 
solemn temples, with gilded spires reaching the skies, supplant the 
Indian huts . . 

Thus wrote Jonathan Carver in the autumn of 1766 after viewing 
the juncture of the “large, fair river,” Wadapaw Menesotor, or Minne¬ 
sota, with the mighty Mississippi. 

This far-seeing New Englander was not the first white man to visit 
the spot or the region. As far back as 1635, Jean Nicolet led the French 
advance into the unknown Northwest; in 1658 and 1659 Radisson and 
Groseilliers brought back to Canada the first canoe-loads of furs from 
this region, and by 1660 they are credited in some quarters with having 
reached the future territory of Minnesota. In 1680 Michael Accault, 
Antoine Auguelle and Father Hennepin ascended the Mississippi, the first 
white men to pass near the present site of Fort Snelling and Minneapolis. 
Pierre Charles Le Sueur came up the Mississippi from Louisiana, reaching 
the mouth of the Minnesota River on the 19th of September, 1700. As a 
result of these voyages, Montreal, the center of French trading, was alive 
with stories of the vastness and wealth of the region, and French fur 
traders came more and more often through the uncharted woods and 
valleys. They were drawn by the promise of easy wealth—hides, furs and 
minerals. And it was easy wealth—beaver skins for a few gaudy trinkets, 
great piles of furs for a cheap rifle, almost anything for whiskey. They 
made no attempt to colonize, however, and because of this, even though 
they wielded some influence over the Indians, their hold on the territory 
was in reality weak. 

Jonathan Carver was the first to visualize the vast possibilities for 
settlement. He had been brought up in the New England tradition which 
followed exploration with colonization, by clearing the forests and creat¬ 
ing farms. And farms were to be the real conquerors of the northwest 
wilderness, though many years were to pass before the young American 
republic could do anything to aid in that conquest. 

By the beginning of the 19 th century, the nation was beginning to 
be curious about the vast expanse that stretched westward, and explorers 
were penetrating the wilderness. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 it 


became a matter of sovereignty as well as trade, and Jefferson succeeded 
in getting Congress to sponsor two bold attempts to know the western 
lands. Two great expeditions were sent out into the unknown. Lewis and 
Clark were assigned to explore the Missouri, and twenty-six-year-old 
Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was despatched with a company of twenty men 
up the Mississippi. 

Pike’s instructions read, "You will be pleased to obtain permission 
from the Indians who claim the ground, for the erection of military posts 
and trading houses, at the mouth of the river St. Pierre.” (Later the 
Minnesota River.) 

Lieutenant Pike left St. Louis in August, 1805. Under the shadow of 
towering bluffs, the little company proceeded northward up the great 
river. They arrived at the junction of the Minnesota with the Mississippi 
on the 21st of September. They put ashore on a small island, now named 
Pike’s Island in the young officer’s honor. 

With Pike’s arrival, the history of the white man’s conquest of Minne¬ 
sota began. For the first time, he raised the American flag in this wilder¬ 
ness, and immediately set about securing the position as a permanent out¬ 
post of his government. The site chosen was atop a high, white cliff com¬ 
manding the junction of the two rivers. Its strategic value was apparent 
at once to Pike as a military man. 

Two days later, at the mouth of the Minnesota, a treaty was signed 
with the Sioux, which ceded to the United States rights to "nine miles 
square at the mouth of the river St. Croix, also, from below the confluence 
of the Mississippi and St. Peter’s [Minnesota], up the Mississippi, to include 
the Falls of St. Anthony, extending nine miles on each side of the river.” 
With magnificent and prophetic finality, Article I of the treaty provided 
"That the Sioux nation grants to the United States, the full sovereignty 
and power over said districts, forever, without any let or hindrance what¬ 
soever.” As soon as the treaty was signed Pike distributed two hundred 
dollars worth of merchandise and 60 gallons of whiskey, promise of which 
had evidently made the Sioux decision easier. 

The young officer was much impressed with the country and deter¬ 
mined to see more of it. However, his further exploration was beset with 
disaster—sledges fell through the ice, bitterly needed supplies were lost, 
fire destroyed a tent, his men suffered with frozen feet and fingers. Out¬ 
side of gaining some slight knowledge of the headwaters of the Mississippi, 
little was accomplished. The Americans shot down the Union Jack from 
the Leech Lake Post of the Northwest Company, but in spite of this, 
British traders continued their activities. 

Pike returned to St. Louis the following April. He had succeeded in 
his most important mission. There was some question of the legality of 


[10] 


his treaty with the Sioux, but it was much too favorable to be thrown 
away. Three years later, April 16, 1808, it was ratified by the U. S. Sen¬ 
ate. In deference to possible feeling among the Indians, the Senate agreed 
to pay them two thousand dollars worth of goods in addition to those 
which Pike had distributed. 

By this time the young republic was torn with political strife, and 
then the War of 1812 began. Extension of the western frontier had to be 
postponed; it was 1817 before it was resumed. 

In that year Major Stephen H. Long, of the corps of the Topographical 
Engineers, was sent to examine the land covered by Pike’s treaty with the 
Sioux. He made a careful survey and returned a recommendation to the 
War Department. He had settled on the point of convergence of the two 
rivers, giving as his reasons: "A military work of considerable magnitude 
might be constructed on the point, and might be rendered sufficiently 
secure. . . The work on the point would be necessary to control the navi¬ 
gation of the two rivers.” 

The government was now ready to act. Rumors that a British colony 
had been founded on the borders of the United States and that British 
traders were extending operations in the area, speeded the matter. Major 
Thomas Forsyth was sent out to distribute among the Indians the amount 
of goods set by the Senate when Pike’s treaty had been ratified. This pay¬ 
ment had been conveniently overlooked pending a definite decision. 


Power and Authority 

T he Rise of Fori Snell in g 


Early in February 1819, United States troops stationed at Prairie du 
Chien, Wisconsin, under Colonel Henry Leavenworth, were sent out to 
establish a post at the site selected by Major Long. Major Forsyth joined 
Leavenworth at Prairie du Chien, and on August 8 th the expedition, with 
118 men of the Fifth Regiment of Infantry, many of them veterans of 
the War of 1812, made its way up the Mississippi. Forsyth arrived at the 
mouth of the Minnesota on August 24, 1819, and Leavenworth arrived 
with the troops the next day. After surveying the area Leavenworth 
decided on a spot on the right bank of the Minnesota, just above the 
river’s mouth, where Mendota now stands, and ordered it cleared. In 
September, 120 additional recruits arrived, and log cabins and a rude 
stockade were erected. With the usual optimism of the frontier, it was 
christened "Cantonment New Hope.” 

The winter which followed at New Hope was heartbreaking. A keel- 
boat of supplies was held down-river by ice, and the provisions on hand 
were inadequate and of poor quality. Scurvy broke out and raged through 
the tiny settlement. It was believed that the disease was due to barrels 
of pork, from which the brine had been drawn to facilitate delivery, and 
which later were refilled with river water. Each of the crowded little 
snow-locked cabins had its share of misery, and by spring the lonely out¬ 
post had more than forty new graves.* 

Leavenworth was convinced that the location of New Hope was 
unhealthy, and he determined to seek a better place. The men were also 
impatient to leave the settlement where they had spent such a horrible 
winter, especially when in May the swollen river, freed of ice, threatened 
to flood New Hope. The garrison was ordered to break camp and move to 
the other side of the river, about a mile from the place where the Fort 
now stands. This new cantonment they named "Camp Coldwater,” 
because of the icy spring that bubbled near their shelters. Coldwater 
was not meant to be permanent. As a permanent site Leavenworth chose 
a spot on the first rise, about 300 yards west of the present Fort. 


* Baker, General James, Address at Fort Snelling in the Celebration of the Centen¬ 
nial Anniversary of the Treaty of Pike With the Sioux, Minnesota Historical Collec¬ 
tions, Vol. 12, Page 239. Folwell says ( History of Minnesota, Vol. 1, Page 138) that 
the number of victims is a matter of dispute. Charlotte Van Cleve ( Three Score Years 
and Ten, Page 19) gives the definite figure of forty while other estimates are higher. 



During the summer the Camp was visited by an exploring party from 
the Yellowstone expedition at Camp Missouri, near the present city of 
Omaha. These men were engaged in trying to map an overland route 
which would connect the two small outposts. The welcome guests were 
"most kindly and hospitably received and entertained by Col. L. and his 
Lady.” 

Early that spring, soldiers had been set to cultivating about ninety 
acres of bottom and prairie land. Nathan Clark, Commissary of the Fort, 
had been instructed by General Gibson, Commissary General of Subsis¬ 
tence, to investigate the possibility of wheat raising there. By midsummer, 
when Governor Cass of Wisconsin visited the Camp with his exploring 
party, he was given green corn, peas, beans, cucumbers, beets, radishes 
and lettuce from the Post garden. Wheat was already ripe and there was 
a good stand of Indian corn and potatoes. This experiment was one of the 
first tests of the fertility of the soil, and it opened a new vista toward the 
development of the region. In the years following, the garrison acreage 
increased and extensive farming operations were carried on. 

The summer of 1820 also brought to the Fort Lieutenant Lawrence 
Taliaferro, who had been appointed by President Monroe as Indian Agent 
for the area. Taliaferro was to play a most important role in the activities 
of the Fort for many years to come. This young Virginian had two main 
aims in his work among the Indians, and was impatient and intolerant of 
anything which might conflict with his purposes. First, he wished to pre¬ 
vent the recurring outbreaks of hostilities among the tribes; and secondly, 
he hoped to put into effect his plan for establishing the Indians in self- 
sustaining agricultural colonies. 

The new agent immediately clashed with Leavenworth. On more than 
one occasion he predicted that the Colonel’s gifts of whiskey to the In¬ 
dians would cause trouble. His prediction was borne out when Chief 
Mahgossau, or White Buzzard, was stabbed by another Indian in an at¬ 
tempt to get whiskey which Leavenworth had given the chief. 

In August 1820, Leavenworth was relieved of his duties at the out¬ 
post and replaced by Colonel Josiah Snelling. The morale of the Post, 
considerably impaired during the latter part of Leavenworth’s regime, 
improved at once under the new commandant, who infused everyone 
with new life and energy. Plans for the Fort were altered and improved. 
The site finally chosen for its erection was a more advantageous spot at 
the high point of the bluff. An energetic, irascible soldier, Snelling set 
about giving the Fort permanence. The cornerstone of Fort St. Anthony, 
as it was then known, was laid on September 10, 1820, with ceremony. 
“The band played, songs were sung and whiskey issued,” and the Fort 
began to rise. 

Soon after taking up residence at the frontier outpost, Mrs. Josiah 


[ 13 ] 


Snelling gave birth to a baby daughter, Elizabeth, the first white child to 
be born in Minnesota. The Fort, a short time before the Snellings’ arrival, 
had also been the scene of the first white marriage in Minnesota, that of 
Captain Gooding’s daughter, Amelia, to Lieutenant Platt Rogers Green 
of the Fifth Infantry. The ceremony was performed by Colonel Leaven¬ 
worth. 

Because the new buildings were not yet ready for occupancy, the troops 
spent the winter of 1820-21 in the old cantonment at New Hope. 

To provide the lumber needed for building, it was decided to erect a 
sawmill at the Falls of St. Anthony. This was put up in 1821 and 
equipped with a "muley saw,” a quick-acting upright saw. Men had been 
sent up the Rum River to cut timber, and in the spring the logs came 
down, but as the mill was not yet completed, most of the lumber had to 
be cut out by whip saws. This rough lumber was then carted by team to 
the site of the new Fort. 

Stone was cut from the Trenton limestone which forms the upper 
part of the Mississippi bluffs between the Fort and the Falls of St. 
Anthony. This was the first quarrying in Minnesota. 

The soldiers working on the buildings were given an additional fifteen 
cents per day, and Snelling drove them hard. But even with Snelling to 
hasten construction, the Fort was not ready to be occupied until late in 
1821, and was not completed, with the Indian Council House and the 
Round Tower, until much later. 

The year 1821 brought the first of the hundreds of discouraged refu¬ 
gees that were to come from the drouth-stricken and grasshopper-plagued 
Selkirk colony. Alexis Bailly, fur trader at Mendota, brought five Swiss 
families with him on his return from the Red River Valley. They were 
permitted to settle as “squatters” near the Fort and were aided with pro¬ 
visions by Colonel Snelling. Many of them found useful employment 
around the garrison. They were the first agriculturists to settle in Min¬ 
nesota. In 1823, thirteen more families came, but these continued south¬ 
ward, seeking a warmer, more congenial climate. Cold, drouth, a grass¬ 
hopper plague, and finally the Red River flood of 1826, drove more and 
more colonists away from the Selkirk settlement. In all, 248 refugees 
came to the Fort; some of them traveled onward, but a number remained. 

In 1823, after the garrison was completely moved into the new Fort, 
a post school was established. A building near the main entrance, in which 
the offices of the commandant, paymaster, quartermaster and commissary 
were located, was also used as the schoolhouse. John Marsh was employed 
as tutor at an annual salary of $75; this income he supplemented by 
carrying the mail between the Fort and Prairie du Chien for an addi¬ 
tional $40 a year. The school was small and the children of most varied 


[ 14 ] 


ages. There were the four Snelling children, Henry, Josiah, Mary and 
William Joseph; Charlotte and Malcolm Clark; James W. Hamilton; and 
John and Andrew Tully. Charlotte Clark, the baby of the class, was only 
four years old. William Joseph Snelling could hardly be called a child, 
since he was twenty and had probably seen more of life than the teacher. 

This was education under the most trying circumstances, and Marsh 
only lasted two years at the job. One of his pupils later commented that 
"He was considered very competent for his work but was a violent tem¬ 
pered man and only maintained his position a few years.” After Marsh 
left, most of the teaching was done by the officers’ wives. French, still 
much needed on this part of the frontier, was taught by Simon, formerly 
an officer under Napoleon Bonaparte. 

In May 1823, the Virginia, the first steamboat to appear at the Fort, 
was welcomed with booming cannon. The Indians were astonished and 
dismayed at the "monster of the waters,” a new evidence of the mighty 
power of the white man. When the "fire-boat” blew off steam they fled 
to hiding places in terror. The citizens of the garrison settlement, how¬ 
ever, were overjoyed at this promise of contact with the outside world. 
The arrival of the Virginia opened a new era for Minnesota. Previously 
it had been believed that the river was not navigable by steamboat north 
of St. Louis, and there was "great speculation as to whether the steam¬ 
boat (Virginia) would ever return.” By 1826 fifteen steamboats had 
visited the Fort. 

Snelling’s plans for the Fort were completed before the arrival of the 
Virginia. Like a medieval castle, the ponderous Round Tower of solid native 
stone frowned down upon the river from its hundred foot bluff. Twenty 
rifle slits allowed firing in any direction. The first row of barracks was 
of hewn pine, other buildings were of stone, and all were enclosed within 
a high stone wall. Snelling knew that the Fort could resist any form of 
attack known at the time. He felt it was a worthy symbol of the govern¬ 
ment he was pledged to extend and uphold in the wilderness. 

Late in that year Mrs. Snelling and Mrs. Clark, wife of a lieutenant, 
started the first Sunday school in the basement of the colonel’s quarters. 
Soldiers and their wives attended, and it was recorded that it was "pro¬ 
ductive of much good.” A Bible school for officers and their wives aroused 
such interest that it "furnished topics of conversation for the week.” 

The experiment in wheat growing proved successful, and the commis¬ 
sary was ordered to make use of it to supply part of the flour needed for 
the garrison. A grist mill was built near the sawmill at the Falls, and 
fittings for it—one pair of buhr mill stones, 337 pounds of plaster of 
paris and two dozen sickles—were sent from St. Louis. The first flour¬ 
making could hardly be called a success, for the bread produced from it 


was black and bitter. When it was issued the troops brought it with them 
to the parade grounds and threw it on the ground before Colonel Snelling. 
The flour having proved unfit for use, there was a serious shortage of 
supplies the following winter. Of all the commodities, it seemed there 
was a sufficiency only of whiskey! Despite the difficulty, flour milling 
had begun—and the small beginning was prophetic of the great mills 
that were later to rise on the same site. 

The next spring brought General Winfield Scott to the Fort for the 
first official inspection. He was greatly impressed by the efficiency and dis¬ 
patch with which his "old comrade,” Snelling, had transformed the rude, 
straggling outpost of a few years before into a handsome, well-planned 
Fort, and on his return to Washington he suggested that the post be 
re-named in Snelling’s honor. An order to that effect was issued by the 
War Department, and Fort St. Anthony became Fort Snelling. 

The War Department intended the Fort as a center of Indian activi¬ 
ties, and a base for extending dominion throughout the entire Northwest. 
At the time of its establishment and for years after, Fort Snelling was 
the extreme northwestern point occupied securely by white men. By 1890 
there was a population of ten million beyond that point, so well had it 
accomplished its purpose. The troops stationed there performed every sort 
of frontier duty. At times, detachments from the garrison traveled hun¬ 
dreds of miles to aid threatened posts and to protect settlers. 

Fort Snelling itself was never the scene of serious trouble with the 
Indians, although there were many minor disturbances. It was Major Tali¬ 
aferro’s idea that tribal differences among the Indians might be settled by 
efforts to bring about understanding between rivals. However, experi¬ 
ments in this direction were not very successful. 

In 1820 Cass had secured at the Fort the signature of Sioux and Chip¬ 
pewa to a treaty of peace. Three years later Taliaferro tried it again. But 
before the delegations were outside the Government Reserve, troops had 
to be called out to avert a bloody fracas. A conclusive peace was signed 
with impressive ceremony at a "grand conference” at Prairie du Chien 
in 1825. A year had not passed before Sioux warriors attacked a band of 
Chippewa within a short distance of Taliaferro’s office. In 1827 there was 
more serious trouble, this also after a peace pipe had been smoked by 
Chippewa and Sioux. On the next evening Sioux warriors fired on un¬ 
suspecting Chippewa, killing two and wounding many at the very gates 
of the Fort. Snelling captured four Sioux and turned them over to the 
Chippewa for punishment according to the savage code. They were given 
thirty yards start and told to run for their lives. Shots quickly cut short 
the race, after which the bodies of the Sioux were scalped and mangled 
with knives. 


Soon it was revealed that two of the four had been innocent, and open 
hostilities between Sioux and whites were barely averted. Criticism of 
Snelling’s action was widespread, and the Sioux began a secret, silent war 
against the soldiers. Several of these disappeared, and were considered 
deserters until their bodies were discovered. 

Explorers used the Fort as a base for their operations into the west and 
north. In July 1823, an expedition under Major Stephen Long reached 
Snelling on its way to the Red River and the Canadian border. The staff 
of the expedition included a zoologist, a geologist and a landscape painter. 
Giacomo Beltrami, an Italian exile, for whom Beltrami County was later 
named, had arrived at the Fort shortly before, and received permission 
to accompany Long’s party to Pembina. Major Taliaferro, much impressed 
with the talented Italian, presented Beltrami with his "noble steed Cad¬ 
mus” and provisions for the journey. Beltrami returned on September 
15 th, without Cadmus, but welcome none the less. 

Meanwhile, under the protection of the Fort, Mendota, the former can¬ 
tonment New Hope, had become a fur trading post for the entire region 
west and north to the Canadian boundary. Restriction of the fur trade 
to American citizens had given virtual monopoly to the American Fur 
Company of John Jacob Astor. In 1834 a branch of that important house 
was established in Mendota, and Henry H. Sibley took over the man¬ 
agership. Mendota’s future seemed assured. Indians, fur traders, travelers 
who were surveying the prospects of trade and future settlement in the 
"Suland,” as land west of the Mississippi was later known, made of Men¬ 
dota a thriving community. Great trains of creaking Red River carts, 
rough two-wheeled affairs, made entirely of wood and drawn by oxen, 
came regularly from Pembina, loaded with furs and escorted by Bois 
Brules (burnt woods), or mixed bloods, attired in barbaric and colorful 
costumes. Here, also, most of the Sioux and Chippewa trading was trans¬ 
acted. But its hopes of becoming a great city were doomed, for when in 
1849 the Astor Company moved to a more favorable location in St. Paul, 
Mendota began to wane. 

In the five years after the completion of the Fort, Josiah Snelling 
ruled with a firm hand, although he chafed under the monotonous routine 
of fort life. Once the job of building the Fort was over, there were few 
outlets for a man who loved action, and these few were not very exciting. 
He often turned to the whiskey bottle for solace. In 1827 the Indians 
near Prairie du Chien killed several whites and fired on supply boats 
bound for Snelling. The Colonel took a company down the river to quell 
the uprising, but after an absence of six weeks the party returned with¬ 
out having fired a gun. 

The men, too, were restive under the imposed duties of farming and 
mowing hay; they expressed themselves as wanting "shooting and stab- 


[ 17 ] 


bing.” Some were driven to the extreme of deserting, although it was 
highly dangerous. In 1823 there were three deserters, in 1824 twenty-two 
and by 1825 there were twenty-nine. Indians were paid a reward of twenty 
dollars for each deserter they brought back. It was sometimes said that 
the walls of the Fort were "rather erected to keep the garrison in, than 
the enemy out.” Close confinement in winter and the restricted social life 
within the Fort caused further tension. 

Discipline necessarily grew more and more severe. Two hundred lashes 
on the naked back of an erring soldier was a punishment common to the 
army in that time. By 1826 dissension among the officers became an 
important problem. Snelling was challenged to a duel but refused to 
accept, whereupon his son, William Joseph, accepted in his place, lost a 
finger and was court-martialed. In the investigation that followed Wil¬ 
liam insulted an officer and another duel was fought, but this time only 
the clothing of the participants suffered damage. Snelling himself accepted 
a duel with a "bad man,” Lieutenant Baxby, "to be fought at four paces 
with pistols . . . firing to continue until one of the parties is killed or 
disabled.” There is, however, no record of this duel being fought. Yet 
notwithstanding his exacting and arbitrary conduct of military affairs, 
Snelling was not a martinet, and his family and friends knew him as a 
kindly and considerate man. Taliaferro had found in him a most depend¬ 
able support for his Indian policies. 

On October 2, 1827, Snelling embarked on the steamer Josephine, 
with his wife, three children and "female servant Olympia,” to take up 
his new appointment at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis. As the boat 
passed down the river he took a last look at the Fort he had built, now 
mellowed somewhat, not quite so stark and new, set in the golden autumn. 
A year later at the age of forty-six, he died. 

Life at the Fort grew ever more uneventful as the land became settled; 
the garrison was more and more occupied with the unexciting, unchroni¬ 
cled, constructive work of peace. Routine was broken only by building, 
by births, and an occasional quiet death. Visitors were frequent, usually 
on their way to more distant places, but always enlivening the Fort and 
providing weeks of conversation and speculation. Missionaries held prayer 
meetings, teachers brought news of happenings in the outside world and 
explorers spiced the evenings with tales, often gruesome and adventurous. 

Holidays were celebrated, not elaborately but as limited opportunities 
would allow. An interesting detail of early life at the Fort is given in 
the record of Christmas celebrations, contained in Taliaferro’s journal, 
"Christmas Day: Serenade this morning at 3 oclk by the musicians.” At 
daylight there were "3 Rounds by the French Inhabitants of the Post 
with the usual complements [s/c] of the Season . . . Indians both men 
& women called at 11 oclk ... in considerable numbers to see & shake 


[18] 


hands & express the feelings of the day . . . The feelings of the heart 
were expressed before I was aware by a few Yellow Kisses—& amusing 
scene.” The Indians had been trained in their Christmas and New Year’s 
observances by the French Canadians and called the holidays "Kissing 
days.” It grew to be an annual ordeal for the Indian Agent. Years later 
he complained that there were "many & old as well as young women” 
who participated. 

After 1832 steamships arrived more regularly at the Fort. Almost 
every boat brought excursionists and visitors, for the trip was "considered 
more wonderful in those days than would be a trip to the Hawaiian Islands 
now,” and distinguished men and women from all over the world came 
to view its promised wonders. 

In the summer of 1832 Major Taliaferro brought his wife to the Fort. 
She was a "very handsome woman” and took an immediate part in the 
social life of the garrison. 

At about this time punishment for wayward soldiers was changed 
from flogging to imprisonment in the "Black Hole,” cut off from all 
light, on a diet of bread and water. An Irishman by the name of Kelley, 
who persisted in replying to orders "I’ll be damned if I do,” was placed 
here, without the bread and water, for three days. He stubbornly refused 
to recant, and the commandant was wondering how to account for his 
anticipated death when the soldier surrendered. After that experience his 
behavior was satisfactory. 

Samuel and Gideon Pond arrived at the Fort on the steamboat 'Warrior 
in May 1834. The brothers had no permit to enter the country, but had 
been "constrained by the love of Christ,” and without conferring with 
anyone had set out to "improve the Sioux.” Major John Bliss held a hear¬ 
ing to determine whether to allow the Ponds to stay. Taliaferro desired 
them to, and his view finally prevailed. The Agent had established an 
Indian agricultural colony, Eatonville, near Lake Calhoun, and saw in the 
Pond brothers worthy and able assistants. The colony, which had begun 
with 12 Indians, had increased to 125 by 1832. They had planted a good 
deal of corn, but did not know how to plow. The Indian village at 
Kaposia, near the Fort, had also entered a request for plowing. 

Samuel Pond volunteered to go to Kaposia, and the tall sinewy Pres¬ 
byterian, leading a yoke of oxen, set out to improve the lot of the Sioux 
in a very practical way by teaching them to plow. At first his charges 
refused to touch the implement, but he persevered until they began to 
experiment for themselves. Gideon was sent to instruct the Sioux at Eaton¬ 
ville in tilling the soil. Both won the respect of the Indians and finally 
settled near Lake Calhoun where they built a two room cabin as a mission 


[ 19 ] 


station and school. The unflinching devotion of these men to their self- 
appointed work won the admiration of both white and Indian. 

Meanwhile, during the same year, the Reverend Thomas S. William¬ 
son made a tour for the American Board of Foreign Missions, after which 
a missionary group was appointed to take up the work of God in Minne¬ 
sota. They arrived at Fort Snelling May 16, 183 5, under the leadership 
of the Reverend Mr. Williamson. Shortly after his arrival, Williamson 
married a young couple at the Fort, the daughter of Colonel Loomis to 
Lieutenant E. A. Ogden. This was the first marriage in Minnesota at 
which a clergyman officiated. Two weeks after Williamson, another group 
of missionaries also appointed by the American Board arrived at the Fort, 
under the leadership of the Reverend Jedediah D. Stevens. 

Colonel Loomis, the commandant, a devout man, encouraged Wil¬ 
liamson to organize a church. The missionary soon brought a committee 
together, and on June 14, 183 5, services were held in the first organized 
Protestant church in the upper Mississippi Valley. Williamson chose as 
his text, "For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned to the 
Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” Samuel Pond became one of the 
elders of the new church. The First Presbyterian Church of Minneapolis 
is a continuation of that first organized worship. 

George Catlin, famous painter of Indian life, was one of several promi¬ 
nent visitors to the Fort during the summer of 183 5. Major Taliaferro 
informed the Indians that Catlin was a powerful medicine man and prom¬ 
ised them that the cannon would be fired twenty-one times if they would 
entertain him on the Fourth of July with a game of lacrosse and an 
exhibition of tribal dances. 

When the day came, hundreds of Indians appeared at the Fort in gala 
attire. They were presented with gifts by Catlin. Rival teams of Sioux 
and Chippewa played the rough, exciting game, those most skilled wear¬ 
ing white horse tails as a symbol of proficiency. The game was followed 
by the beggar’s dance, the buffalo dance, the bear dance, the eagle dance 
and the dance of the braves. The latter—in which the golden bodies of 
the braves were adorned only with feather girdles—Catlin afterward de¬ 
scribed as "peculiarly beautiful and exciting to the feelings in the highest 
degree.” In the evening before the Indians returned to their camps and 
villages, cannon boomed over the river, as Taliaferro had promised. 

Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, a young Frenchman who had received War 
Department permission to explore in the region, arrived at the Fort in 
the summer of 1836, and was given a hearty welcome. He traveled 
throughout the north country, returning to the Fort on September 27th. 
A spell of cold weather led him to decide to spend the winter at the 
Post, and during this time he devoted himself to studying the Sioux and 


[ 20 ] 


Chippewa languages. He was a most welcome guest, for he was an accom¬ 
plished violinist and spent many evenings playing, accompanied on the 
piano by Mrs. Taliaferro. 

The whole garrison found diversion in amateur theatricals. The first 
presentation of which we have record was on October first, 1836, a per¬ 
formance of Monsieur Tonson, a popular farce, and The Village Lawyer. 
The entire Fort was ransacked for properties for these productions. Sol¬ 
diers played all the characters, so those taking women’s parts had to 
make "a generous sacrifice to art of . . . whiskers and moustaches.” The 
appearance of these ungainly "women” caused much amusement. These 
first dramatic presentations in Minnesota were so successful that after¬ 
ward the soldiers would "get up theatrical performances every fortnight 
or so.” 

During this period, Dr. John Emerson was stationed at the post. He 
had brought north with him a Negro slave, Dred Scott. Upon Dr. Emer¬ 
son’s death, his widow moved to St. Louis, in slave territory. Here, Scott, 
aided by wealthy and powerful sons of his previous owner, Peter Blow, 
sued for his freedom on the grounds that his residence at Fort Snelling, 
in territory where slavery was prohibited under the Missouri compromise, 
had made him a free man. The Supreme Court, when appealed to, declared 
the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and thus precipitated the events 
leading to the Civil War. 

On June 27, 1837, one of the more or less regular trains of Red River 
carts arrived at the Fort from the northern settlements. Among the trav¬ 
elers in the caravan was Peter Garrioch, a young Canadian school teacher, 
traveling east for further education. The Reverend J. D. Stevens of the 
Sioux Mission at Lake Harriet persuaded the young man to take care of 
the Mission until Stevens could journey to New York and return. Gar¬ 
rioch consented, and in the fall, on the last steamer, Stevens returned. The 
captain, fearing that the boat would be caught by ice, departed in a 
hurry, before Garrioch could get on board. Thus the young teacher found 
himself stranded at Fort Snelling for the winter, in need of a means of 
earning his living. He determined to open a school at Baker’s Settlement, 
a small cluster of cabins around the trading house of Benjamin F. Baker, 
on the former site of Camp Coldwater. 

This school opened on December first. Garrioch was not entirely satis¬ 
fied with the results, for he wrote in his diary: "Opened my school on 
the heterogeneous system. The whole number of brats that attended for 
the purpose of being benefited by my notions, on my philosophical plan, 
amounted to thirty. This number is composed of English, French, Swiss, 
Cree, Chippewa, Sioux and Negro extraction. Such a composition and 
such a group of geniuses, I never saw before. May it never be my privilege 
to meet another. It staggered my gifts ... to keep up with the brights. 


I question whether an antiquarian of the most celebrated longevity ever 
lived . . . who could produce a specimen of such dolts and dunderheads 
as were clustered together in my school.” 

Another visitor to the Fort during the summer of 1837 was Mrs. 
Elizabeth S. Hamilton, the widow of Alexander Hamilton. The eighty- 
year-old woman had come west to visit a son in Wisconsin and had de¬ 
termined to see as much of the country as possible, including Fort Snell- 
ing. Her reception was probably the most elaborate ever given there up 
to that time. 

Major Joseph Plympton, who took command in August 1837, at 
once interested himself in defining the limits of the military reservation 
and the number of settlers. It was found there were 82 white inhabitants 
in Baker’s Settlement, and that these with others made up a total of 157 
persons who had no connection with the garrison. 

Also arriving in 1837 was Franklin Steele, later to play an important 
role in the affairs of the Fort. The next year he was appointed sutler of 
the Post by President Van Buren. 

Captain Frederick Marryat was another visitor of the same year. The 
British novelist was not long welcome. He was presented with a gift by 
the Sioux, and in his speech of acceptance he advised the Indians that if 
there should ever be war again between Britain and the United States 
"you should not take part with the Americans.” Taliaferro was informed 
of this and Marryat was advised that his stay in the Fort territory had 
ended. 

The steamship Ariel , first boat to arrive at Fort Snelling in 1839, 
brought twenty barrels of whiskey. The next boat brought six barrels, 
all of it intended for the use of traders in the vicinity. The surgeon at 
the Fort complained to Washington, "There is a citizen named Brown” 
who is "actually building . . . within gunshot of the Fort, a very 
expensive whiskey shop.” The surgeon’s fears were more than justified, 
for drinking caused disturbances among both soldiers and Indians. On 
June 30th, after a visit to "Brown’s Groggery,” forty-seven of the soldiers 
spent the night in the guard house for drunkenness. Major Plympton 
determined to rid the Fort of the nuisance and called for the evacuation 
of all white settlers within twenty miles. 

The settlers on the west side, who had originally squatted there with 
the tacit permission of the authorities, were thus innocent victims of this 
fight against the whiskey sellers. They did not obey the order and organ¬ 
ized to protest to Congress. However, in May 1840, the garrison moved 
on the settlement, ejecting the people and their goods and unroofing the 
houses. The settlers sent a claim for damages to Congress, where it was 
promptly pigeonholed and forgotten. 


[ 22 ] 


The most important event of 1839 was the voluntary resignation of 
Indian Agent Taliaferro. His Indian agricultural colony had been brought 
to an end by Sioux and Chippewa hostilities and his work for the Indians 
seemed hopeless. He wrote that he knew then, "The time would come 
when all my efforts to do good would pass into oblivion and the nation¬ 
ality of the noble Sioux be completely destroyed.” He, more perhaps than 
anyone else, had seemed a part of the Fort. Regiments came and departed, 
officers were transferred, but he had remained. 

Early in Taliaferro’s career, traders and politicians had found that he 
could not be bribed or frightened into conniving against the Indians, and 
this did not endear him to them. In 1830 he prevented the American Fur 
Company from collecting through the government on credits to the 
Indians, and afterwards was counted a dangerous enemy by that powerful 
corporation. 

On September 9, 1839, a final humiliating event occurred which 
brought about his resignation. On that day a group of Sioux crossed to 
the east shore of the Mississippi and burned the grog shop of some whis¬ 
key traders. On October 5 th Henry C. Menck, one of the whiskey sell¬ 
ers, having obtained an illegal appointment as a special deputy sheriff 
from Clayton County, Iowa, forced Taliaferro’s door. He threw the 
Indian Agent, who was ill and in bed, to the floor, held him there, threat¬ 
ened him with a pistol and informed him that he was under arrest for 
burning the grog shop, and that sick or well he must go to Clayton Court 
House. First, though, Taliaferro was permitted to send the commandant 
a message informing him of his departure. The result was a foregone con¬ 
clusion. Menck was promptly taken into custody and expelled from the 
area with scant ceremony, but Taliaferro also did not long remain. 

Concerning his resignation, Taliaferro wrote in his journal: "I leave 
the whole nest this fall of Indians and traders ... I am disgusted with 
the life of an Agent among such bad materials and bad management on 
the part of Congress—The Indian Office &c&c.” As he said, the Indian 
Office was "bending a listening ear to the agents of the American Fur 
Company,” and all his efforts to aid the Indians were brought to nothing. 

Zachary Taylor, commandant of the Fort from 1828 to 1829, and 
later President of the United States, had already testified that the Ameri¬ 
can Fur Company was "the greatest set of scoundrels the world ever 
knew.” This was a strong statement but the Indian Agent probably shared 
Taylor’s opinion. Taliaferro’s honesty and pride revolted at seeing his work 
defeated by that Company. He wrote, “I have the Sad Consolation of 
leaving . . . the public service as poor as when I first entered it . . . 
the only evidence of my integrity.” 

An important arrival of 1839 was the Reverend Ezekiel Gilbert Gear, 


[ 23 ] 


who was chaplain of the post for the next nineteen years. He also acted 
as schoolmaster for the Fort school. He was the first resident Christian 
minister of a white community in Minnesota. 

Captain Seth Eastman was appointed commandant of Fort Snelling 
in 1841 and held that post at intervals up to 1848. He was an artist, 
and left many drawings of the Fort and the surrounding country. 

In 1843, the Protestant Episcopal Church sent Bishop Jackson Kem¬ 
per to Fort Snelling to study the possibilities of work among the Indians. 
He saw much need for a mission among the Chippewa, and urged its 
immediate establishment. This mission, however, was not founded until 
1852. 

Settlement proceeded very slowly up until 1849, when the number 
garrisoned at the Fort was listed as two hundred. On April 9th of that 
year, news sped up the river that Minnesota had been made a Territory, 
and following this came settlers in swiftly increasing numbers. Until this 
time, St. Paul was known chiefly as an evil place that sold Minne-wakan 
(spirit water) to the Indians and traders. Now its population doubled 
and trebled because of the rumor that it was to be the territorial capital. 

The present Reserve Township of Ramsey County was then included 
in the military reservation. A report was spread that the reservation area 
was to be reduced and that this portion of land would be thrown open 
to settlers. Overnight hundreds of shanties went up. When the invasion 
was reported to Colonel Loomis, he ordered a lieutenant with twenty 
mounted men to pull down every cabin and expel the would-be settlers. 

News of the Sioux treaties of 1851 led settlers to invade the region 
west of the Mississippi river though it was still restricted territory. The 
Indian Agent remonstrated and labored to prevent this unlawful procedure, 
but neither the garrison nor public officials were zealous in the defense of 
Indian rights. 

One of the settlers who came in October 18 51, was Dr. Alfred Elisha 
Ames. With his family of six sons, Dr. Ames moved from Illinois to the 
Fort Snelling reservation, and became the first practicing physician in 
Minneapolis. Among his sons was Albert Alonzo Ames, then a boy of ten, 
who later became notorious in Minneapolis politics. 

The forcible expulsion of the Selkirk refugees discouraged direct at¬ 
tempts to secure land in the military reserve. But pressure for settlement 
was almost irresistible, and in 1852 Congress reduced the original Fort 
reserve to the limits bounded by Minnehaha Creek and Lake Amelia (No- 
komis). A bill was then entered to recognize the prior claims. Most of 
the squatters who had entered kept their plots of land but were afraid to 
build upon them. Not more than twelve dwellings had been erected before 
this year, though there were many claim shanties. 


[ 24 ] 


After the establishment of the Territory of Minnesota, the impor¬ 
tance of Fort Snelling began to decline. The Chippewa were being sub¬ 
dued, and the Sioux had been removed to the Redwood area, so that there 
was agitation in some quarters for abandonment of the Fort and its sale 
to private citizens. There is reason to believe, however, that most of this 
agitation emanated from persons interested in the site as a source of specu¬ 
lative profits. 

On June 6, 1857, under an act of Congress of March 3, 1835, author¬ 
izing the sale of certain military sites, Secretary of War John B. Floyd 
sold Fort Snelling reserve, with the exception of two small tracts, to 
Franklin Steele. The price was $90,000, with one third of the amount 
paid down and an agreement that the remainder should be paid in two 
equal annual sums. This sale was made without allowing others to bid, 
and a lively scandal resulted. It was believed that Steele was acting in 
behalf of a group of land speculators with good connections in Washing¬ 
ton, and Secretary Floyd was later discredited and accused of "graft” in 
connection with the deal. One military man said later, with regard to it: 
"With a knowledge of this fact, we are now prepared to understand his 
[Floyd’s] conduct in robbing the armories and arsenals of the country and 
turning their contents over to the southern people to be used against the 
government. ...” 

On July 19, 1858, the quartermaster relinquished the fort buildings 
and the first period in the history of old Fort Snelling was ended. 

The year Franklin Steele took possession found business at a stand¬ 
still, and real estate a drug on the market. He purchased a large herd of 
sheep and turned the grounds into a sheep ranch. In order to protect the 
herd at night they were driven inside the walls and permitted to occupy 
the houses. Eventually Steele’s high hopes collapsed, and he defaulted on 
the next two payments. It seems that the sheep raising program also was 
abandoned, for in 1860 the Fort was the scene of the first Minnesota 
State Fair. 

Then came the Civil War, and as no suitable quarters could be found 
in St. Paul for assembling troops, recruits were instructed to report to 
Fort Snelling. On April 29, 1861, the Stars and Stripes were again raised 
over the Fort, and mustering in began. The companies elected their own 
officers, who were afterward commissioned by the Governor. Minnesota 
had been asked for a regiment of 780 men—within two weeks she had 
nearly a thousand. 

The First Minnesota Regiment was enlisted, but was without uni¬ 
forms, ammunition or other equipment. The adjutant, lacking both money 
and authority, let contracts to local companies for needed supplies. The 
uniform provided was picturesque in the extreme, consisting of red flannel 


[ 25 ] 


shirts, black trousers and "slouch” hats. This uniform was worn in the 
Battle of Bull Run where it proved a splendid target for rebel fire. 

Food provisioning was also badly handled, and local contractors proved 
miserly. The men often refused to touch the inadequate and badly pre¬ 
pared meals; sarcastic and profane comment on the quality of the food 
was commonplace. These protests culminated in a virtual bread riot, after 
which matters were somewhat improved. 

From 1861 to 1866 the Fort was occupied by troops. All Minnesota 
regiments and batteries in the Civil War were trained inside and around 
the walls of the Fort. Troops were kept there during the entire war, 
because of the Sioux Outbreak in 1862, and the fear that isolated com¬ 
munities might be subject to further attack. 

In 1862 a young German army officer. Count Zeppelin, military at¬ 
tache to the United States, was assigned to Fort Snelling and was quar¬ 
tered in the old Round Tower. It was while here that he first conceived 
his idea of lighter-than-air craft. He approached the Union military com¬ 
mand with plans for an observation balloon. The idea was laughed down, 
but the young German was not so easily put off. He had the military 
tailor sew a canvas bag for him, and he filled it with as much illuminating 
gas as the old St. Paul Gas Company would allot to him. On a bright 
spring night in 1864 he made a thirty minute flight 300 feet above the 
tower. As a result of this flight his dream of future air travel took con¬ 
crete form. 

In 1864 two leaders of the Sioux uprising, Shakopee and Medicine 
Bottle, were arrested and brought to Fort Snelling for trial. They were 
tried in December, and sentenced to be hanged. Shakopee, a dignified 
old chief, who believed he had taken the only chance left to free his people, 
was stoic in his failure. A gallows was erected on a little knoll near the 
Fort and a great crowd gathered to witness the hanging. At the last 
moment, a railway whistle broke the hush that had settled upon the 
people. Shakopee raised his arm toward the sound and with quiet resigna¬ 
tion said, "As the white man comes in, the Indian goes out.” Then the 
trap fell.* 

In 1868 Franklin Steele presented to the War Department a bill for 


* Newson, Mary J., Memories of Fort Snelling in Civil War Days, Minnesota His¬ 
tory, Vol. 15, No. 4, December 1934, Page 400. Also see An English Visitor of the Civil 
War Period, Minnesota History, Vol. 9, No. 4, December 1928, pp. 381-382. 

Shakopee (Little Six) was hanged on November 11, 1865 (Folwell, W. W., His¬ 
tory of Minnesota, Vol. 2, Page 293, 450). The first run over the Minnesota Valley Rail¬ 
road, which is supposed to have been the whistle heard, took place on November 21, 
1865 (St. Paul Daily Pioneer, November 22, 1865). These facts do not completely dis¬ 
count the incident. It is quite possible that work trains on trial runs would have sounded 
a whistle on the 11th. 


[ 26 ] 


$162,000 for rental on the reserve from 1861 to 1866. Secretary of War 
Edwin Stanton said, "That is one of Floyd’s flyblown contracts and I 
will have nothing to do with it, unless I am directed to do so by Con¬ 
gress.” A bill was presented to Congress settling the claim in Steele’s 
favor. This bill was defeated through the efforts of Ignatius Donnelly, but 
at the next session it was passed. Further, the settlement reduced the 
reserve and gave Steele a large share of the land. About fifteen hundred 
acres were reserved for military purposes, and Fort Snelling has since re¬ 
mained a permanent training and army post. 

Fort Snelling, like other frontier forts, was an institution not solely 
military in nature. Its function extended into many phases of pioneer life. 
It was the center of social activity and, in the very early days, of cul¬ 
tural life. Its history was not created with rifle and sword. To protect 
the work of axe and plow, to shelter the growth of a commonwealth, 
was Fort Snelling’s honor and glory. 

Its early inhabitants had great aspirations for the Fort. One writer 
said, "The original intention was to group the metropolis of the Upper 
Mississippi basin around this station [Fort Snelling] . . . for [with] 
the continual growth of these urban groups [St. Paul and Minneapolis] 
the Fort must become the natural center of the whole aggregate.” 

But as the years progressed the Fort was relegated to the background. 
The two great cities, which in their infancy were protected by it, out¬ 
stripped it, surrounded it, and finally left it aside, almost forgotten. The 
tense days of the Civil War again, for a brief time, gave the Fort im¬ 
portance, but it was soon forgotten in the turbulent activity and indus¬ 
trial growth that followed. The dream of Jonathan Carver, the hopes 
of the settlers in the wilderness, were more than fulfilled in the magnifi¬ 
cent cities arising on either side—but in their fulfillment the Fort, save 
for the routine activities of its garrison, has become little more than a 
memory of great beginnings. 


[ 27 ] 


They Came From New England 

The Settlement of St. Anthony 


By 1830-1840, the unknown Northwest was becoming known, and 
the settlers—farmers, lawyers, business men and artisans—were beginning 
to establish homes and communities in the new land. 

It was inevitable that a great trade and business center should develop 
to serve the area. Men’s views as to where this center should be were 
widely divergent, and they staked their fortunes and their future upon 
the outcome. 

Almost certainly it would be on the Mississippi River, which, with 
its tributaries, provided easy transportation into the very heart of this 
land. St. Anthony’s Falls, the most important break in transportation on 
the river, was a source of potential power, a base for manufacturing as 
well as commerce. Other factors favored its becoming the manufacturing 
and commercial center, such as the seemingly endless forests of pine to 
the north, and to the south and west the boundless wheat lands, corn lands 
and stock ranges that were steadily luring settlers to the region. 

St. Anthony’s Falls in the 1830’s was widely known for its beauty; 
visitors to the nearby Fort had spread its fame far abroad. Long before 
these visitors came, the Indians had worshipped the Falls as the dwelling 
place of the Manitou, often throwing their most treasured possessions into 
the water, as an offering to the spirits dwelling there. 

Now came ambitious men who saw in the Falls, not beauty, but 
power. The beauty they sought was civilization, wealth and trade, and 
the Falls would be a means of producing these things. 

Not only was there power, but limitless forests were waiting to be 
transformed by that power into material for building the prosperous city 
of which they dreamed. So they moved to make that power their own. 
In 1836, before the Indian claim to the land was extinguished, Major 
Joseph Plympton, commandant of Fort Snelling, and Captain Martin 
Scott selected the land controlling the power site, and built a cabin as 
token of their prior claim. The following year Sergeant Nathaniel Car¬ 
penter staked out a claim next to Plympton’s. It was against the law, 
since officers were not allowed to preempt land, but they could try, and 
hope. 

However, another man had his eye on that land—one who knew the 
law and how to bide his time. This man was Franklin Steele, who visited 


the place in 1837, returned to his lumbering operations on the St. Croix, 
then traveled on to Washington. He came again to Fort Snelling, June 
13, 1838, his plans apparently well laid. The next month the steamship 
'Palmyra brought official news that the east river land had been opened 
and the Indian claim extinguished. That night, in secret, Steele with 
several other men crossed the river in the darkness, and built a makeshift 
cabin. Next morning, sensing something amiss, Captain Scott hurried to 
the claim and found Steele in possession. His protests were of no avail— 
Steele quoted the law against officers taking claims, and ordered Scott 
off the place. The officers, knowing they were beaten, withdrew with¬ 
out further dispute. 

A permanent cabin was built on the claim, and Steele, because he was 
busy as sutler at the Fort, was forced to hire men to hold the claim for 
him. At this he was not as fortunate as he had been in establishing his 
claim. An old voyageur, LaGrue, was first placed in charge. While this 
man was away one day the cabin burned and his wife perished in the 
flames. LaGrue soon after disappeared into the wilderness. Another voy¬ 
ageur, Charles Landry, was then employed as caretaker. He was irresponsi¬ 
ble and shiftless, and once when he was too long absent, Menck, an adven¬ 
turer, jumped the claim. 

There was no law by which Steele might evict him, but Menck was 
not particularly interested in land development, and proved amenable 
when Steele offered him several hundred dollars for vacating the claim. 
Afterward Steele installed Joseph Reachi, another Canadian voyageur, as 
caretaker, a man who brought with him his wife and seven children. 

By 1845 a straggling population of less than fifty people was living 
in rude shacks along the eastern shore. Some were traders; others were 
holding claims, for themselves or for employers. Only one cabin, that 
occupied by Reachi, was shingled; the others were roofed with elm bark 
or sod. The opposite side of the river had one resident only: "Old Mal¬ 
oney,” the man who took care of the government mill. 

Of the actual settlers, the leading one was Pierre Bottineau, French- 
Indian trader and guide, who in 1844 had secured an interest in some 
claims, and the next year moved with his family and brother-in-law to 
the Falls. As trader for the American Fur Company, Bottineau had been 
active around the Falls since 1842, experimenting first with keelboats 
and then with flat boats, for navigating the upper river. 

Steele in the meantime continued his efforts to dominate the develop¬ 
ment of the eastern shore. His purchase of the claims of Peter Quinn and 
his son-in-law Samuel J. Findley completed his control of the water¬ 
power. By the close of the year 1845 the close friends, Bottineau and 
Steele, controlled all important land on the east side of the river. From 


[ 29 ] 


his post as sutler at the Fort and through his connections at Washington, 
Steele was in a powerful position to aid and encourage development of the 
settlement. 

To this end he approached eastern financiers in an attempt to secure 
capital for lumbering. This attempt was not at first successful. The men 
who were to furnish the money were not convinced that there was suffi¬ 
cient timber to make the venture profitable, and Steele himself could not 
speak with authority. He knew there was timber, but he did not know 
how much. 

Early in 1847, Daniel Stanchfield, a hard-headed New Englander, 
came to the Fort and met Steele, who soon realized that here was the man 
for him. Stanchfield was first in a long succession of faithful, intelligent 
men whom the sutler chose for his aids. When Steele outlined his plans in 
detail Stanchfield was much impressed and undertook to go into the north 
country and make a report for the eastern financiers on the pine avail¬ 
able. He found more potential wealth than either he or Steele had dared 
hope for. 

Stanchfield’s report convinced Caleb Cushing, Robert Rantoul and 
other eastern capitalists of the possibilities for investment. On July 10, 
1847, nine-tenths of the water power rights were turned over to the 
financiers in return for the $10,000 needed for the construction of a 
dam and a sawmill, and to finance first operations. The money was not 
immediately forthcoming, but the promise was sufficient to start things 
moving. 

Ard Godfrey was to come from Maine to supervise the building of 
the dam and sawmill; until he arrived Jacob Fisher of St. Croix super¬ 
vised preliminary operations. Godfrey, with John McDonald and Ira Bur¬ 
roughs, reached the Falls in early autumn. There was little in the appear¬ 
ance of the place to encourage belief in its future. Near the Falls was 
Steele’s cabin, then occupied by Luther Patch and his two daughters, 
Marion and Cora. A small field of corn grew nearby. To the north stood 
Pierre Bottineau’s log house close to the shore, while near a ravine to the 
southward was Calvin Tuttle’s shanty. These, with a few scattered cabins 
of French squatters, made up the entire settlement. 

Men were sent north to bring down timber for building operations. 
Robert W. Cummings, Henry Angell, Captain John Tapper and William 
Dugas went up the Swan River while Daniel Stanchfield led another 
crew up the Rum River. Both expeditions suffered misfortune. The tim¬ 
ber from the banks of the Swan was caught and frozen in at Pike Rapids. 
This timber was saved when the ice broke up in the spring but it was 
too late to help build the dam. The logs from the Rum River region were 
also frozen in and these were lost in the spring torrents. 


[ 30 ] 


Meanwhile Godfrey had noticed the beautiful groves of maple and 
elm on Nicollet and Hennepin Islands. To build the dam, these trees 
went down beneath the woodsmen’s axes. 

That winter brought more misfortune. A boat sank and was lost with 
all its supplies, including the hardware and tools that were necessary for 
building the mill and much needed homes. The winter was a severe one, 
and provisions were scarce. There were few women in the settlement, and 
the men had to do their own cooking and housekeeping, as well as their 
work in building and lumbering. The old government sawmill across the 
river, although still operating, was almost worn out, and its capacity at 
best was three or four hundred feet per day. Some lumber was hauled 
from St. Croix, but this was also insufficient for minimum needs. Some 
hardy pioneers actually hewed the wood for their homes out of hard 
tamarack, elm, and maple trees. 

Stanchfield led another crew into the north, this time to bargain for 
a supply of timber with the Indians who held title to the woodland. 
After a conference, Chief Hole-in-the-Day asked that they be given five 
pair of blankets, some calico and broadcloth, fifty cents per tree and a 
pony in the spring. Stanchfield felt that this was an exhorbitant price 
but he finally agreed, with the provision that the cost of the presents 
should be taken out of the price paid for the trees. Lumbering then began 
in earnest. 

A further misfortune now befell the settlement. Rantoul and Cushing 
failed to meet their payments, and Steele ran out of money. Since the 
settlement and its prosperity depended upon him, everyone felt the pinch 
of hardship. They kept on in spite of these difficulties, for the mill was 
their hope and upon it everything depended. 

So far the growing community had been without the convenience of 
a store. Now Roswell P. Russell, who had worked for Steele at the Fort, 
brought over a small stock of goods from the sutler’s supplies and dis¬ 
played it in the front room of the house on Steele’s claim which was occu¬ 
pied by Luther Patch and his two daughters. This house, at which Russell 
also boarded, was at what is now the corner of Second Ave. S. E. and 
Main Street. The entire stock of this first store was about one wagon load, 
and though later merchants might refer to it with contempt, it was 
greatly appreciated by the settlers. In the year following, a romance de¬ 
veloped in this store and, on October 3, 1848, Miss Marion Patch became 
Mrs. R. P. Russell, the first marriage to be celebrated in the new village. 

In the early days of the settlement, the only way to cross to the west 
side was by fording the river along a rock ledge at the foot of Nicollet 
Island. The current was swift at this point, however, and the building 
of the dam raised the water to a point where fording was no longer possi- 


[ 31 ] 


ble. Near Boom Island the river was more placid, and here canoe cross¬ 
ings could be made. An Indian woman, who earned her living by fishing, 
often added to her income by taking travelers across at this point in a 
canoe. Late in 1847 Steele financed the establishment of a regular ferry 
service. The equipment was primitive, consisting of a rope cable stretched 
from shore to shore along which moved a flat boat whose movable keel 
used the current as motive power. R. P. Russell took charge of the busi¬ 
ness of the line and Edgar Folsom was brought to the settlement to act as 
boatman. 

One day a daughter of Reuben Bean struck the ferry cable with her 
canoe, which upset and plunged the girl into the river. She clung des¬ 
perately to the cable until Folsom rescued her. In return for saving her 
life, the ferryman asked the maiden for her hand in marriage. One look 
at her rescuer was enough. "Put me back on the ferry rope,” she pleaded. 
The story of his rejected proposal made Folsom the butt of so much ridi¬ 
cule that he soon left the settlement, and William Dugas took over the 
ferry. 

Under the guidance of an experienced millwright, Ard Godfrey, work 
on the dam went steadily forward. In the summer of 1848, with the 
mill practically completed, Godfrey went back to Maine for his family. 
In September the mill opened, with two sash saws in operation. Difficul¬ 
ties began to ease up for the settlers. Some who had visited the place the 
preceding fall, and had been discouraged by the lack of lumber and tools 
with which to build, now returned to take up permanent residence. 
Among these was William R. Marshall, who was to play a prominent 
part in community affairs and who later became governor of the Terri¬ 
tory. 

One mill was not sufficient for the settlement’s own needs, and St. 
Paul and other places were asking for lumber. Therefore plans were made 
and construction begun on a gang sawmill and two shingle mills, to be 
completed and working by the spring of 1849. 

Before 1848 all of this land upon which the settlers were working, 
and upon which they were pinning their hopes, belonged to the Govern¬ 
ment. There had not been a survey, and no transfer of ownership could 
be legally recorded. This year the first Government sale took place, and 
the land was sold to the claimants at a dollar and twenty-five cents an 
acre. Steele found means of securing all the land which he considered 
valuable. Settlers had been hired to hold the best tracts for him; they 
bought it in this sale, with the provision that they would later transfer 
ownership to Steele. Other settlers sold their land to him as soon as their 
title was confirmed. 

After the sale, Steele and Bottineau hired William R. Marshall to 
survey the townsite and lay it out in blocks and lots. A survey had been 

[32] 


started earlier by S. P. Folsom but had never been completed. Marshall 
laid out the streets eighty feet wide, with the exception of Main Street, 
which was to be one hundred feet. Population of the settlement had 
reached 300, mostly men. Everyone expected many settlers the next spring. 
Most of the men had families coming, and everyone knew of friends 
“back east” who were preparing to make the journey. Word was spread¬ 
ing that Minnesota was to be made a territory. Platting the city had been 
the final preparatory step; St. Anthony waited expectantly. 

The year that followed was one of startling growth. In the middle 
of April, 1849, the first boat arrived in St. Paul, bringing needed sup¬ 
plies, tools, and new settlers. Among the passengers was Mrs. Ard God¬ 
frey, with her children. Godfrey had come back the previous fall and had 
built a home while his family had waited for navigation to open. In this 
house, two months after her arrival, Mrs. Godfrey gave birth to a daugh¬ 
ter, Harriet Razada, the first white child of American lineage to be born 
in the settlement. 

Every week brought newcomers. There was no hotel, aside from the 
rude boarding house kept for lumbermen, and the incoming settlers, if 
they were lucky, bunked with friends or acquaintances. Some had to 
sleep upon floors, others camped out until a cabin could be built. 

Most of these new settlers were sturdy, thrifty New Englanders. 
Maine provided the largest number, many of them woodsmen from along 
the Penobscot. Others came from the hills of Vermont and New Hamp¬ 
shire. All trades and professions were represented and all worked first at 
lumbering. One, a doctor, often was called to his patients from the mill, 
arriving in sawdust-covered overalls. Soon, however, he found it possible 
to confine himself to his profession, for in that summer 40 children were 
born in the settlement. 

Among other arrivals was Miss Electa Bachus, a young woman who 
had set out from her native Connecticut to be a missionary teacher among 
the Indians. At St. Anthony, however, she found herself among fellow 
New Englanders, who were not in need of missionaries, but whose chil¬ 
dren sorely needed instruction. Miss Bachus began a school soon after her 
arrival, in a small shanty, with only ten or twelve children in attend¬ 
ance. Before the end of summer the number had increased to forty and 
the room was overcrowded. A schoolhouse was erected in the fall, the 
first to be built except for the post school at Fort Snelling, within the 
present confines of Hennepin County. 

Ard Godfrey was appointed postmaster in 1849, and the first post 
office was set up in the office of the lumber company. It consisted of an 
empty candlebox divided into compartments; people came in and took 
their own mail. The postmaster had to send to St. Paul for the mail as 


[ 33 ] 


best he could; there was no regular transportation between the two 
places and no mail carrier. Captain John Rollins ran a passenger wagon 
to the larger city occasionally but this was not dependable. Regular stage 
coach service was not inaugurated until the following year. 

In the spring William R. Marshall, in partnership with his brother 
Joseph, opened a store on Main Street to supply the growing demand for 
merchandise. This store was a front room in the Marshall brothers’ resi¬ 
dence, which had the distinction of being the first plastered building in 
the town. Marshall, ignoring Russell’s makeshift stock of goods, called 
his the first store. There was sufficient business to attract other merchants 
also, and Russell went into partnership with Joel D. Cruttenden and 
opened a larger store in a new location. John G. Lennon opened a store for 
the American Fur Company, and Daniel Stanchfield also turned mer¬ 
chant. Stanchfield’s store was the largest in the village at the time. 
Although business was good, cash was scarce. Some of the merchants 
accepted logs in payment and ran them down to the markets on the lower 
river. On this basis it took a year to get a cash return on merchandise 
sold. 

Though money was scarce, everything seemed to prosper and grow. 
The mill began operating two new saws and the supply of lumber be¬ 
came somewhat more plentiful. To supply needed housing for travelers 
and new settlers, Anson Northup began construction of the St. Charles 
Hotel. Since the first deal with eastern capitalists had fallen through, cash 
for these new developments was badly needed. To meet this need Franklin 
Steele now sold a half interest in his holdings at the Falls to Arnold W. 
Taylor of Boston for $20,000. This proved to be a bad bargain, for Taylor 
was an irascible gentleman who could agree with no one and who seemed 
to care little whether the town developed or died. The result of his ob¬ 
stinacy was to retard the growth of the village, and two years later Steele 
was glad to buy back the interest for $25,000. 

Development was so rapid that the settlement was soon possessed with 
ambitions far beyond its reach. When the first Territorial Legislature 
met in St. Paul in September, William Marshall, representing the interest 
of the thriving town, boldly demanded for St. Anthony the honor of 
being named Territorial capital, and vigorously opposed the passage of 
a bill locating it at St. Paul. The bill, of course, passed, but the fight was 
not wholly in vain, since later the Legislature decided to placate St. 
Anthony by locating the university there. During the winter 1850-1851 
the citizens undertook to see that this valuable prize was not taken away 
from them, and, to prove that they took the matter seriously, raised 
$3,000 by popular subscription for the erection of a university building 
upon land donated by Franklin Steele. The first building, a crude wooden 
affair, was built near the mills facing Main Street and the Mississippi. 


[ 34 ] 


It was soon apparent, however, that this location was too close to the 
business and manufacturing section, and a new site, the present one, 
was secured. 

The winter of 1849-1850 saw the beginning of social life in the settle¬ 
ment. The settlers were, for the most part, well educated, and devoted 
themselves to transplanting to their new home the culture of their native 
New England. 

Books were scarce and were accorded a welcome which is hard to 
imagine now. During the early part of that winter a copy of "David 
Copperfield” arrived in the mail. The most exciting news in the village 
that day was "Dickens’ new novel has come.” The owner of the book 
was generous and the book was liberally loaned. By spring virtually all 
had read it, and the volume was worn to tatters. 

Mr. and Mrs. J. W. North had brought to their home on Nicollet 
Island a piano, the first in the village. Every week the elect of the colony 
found their way to the Island across the bridge of accumulated logs, for 
an evening of music, reading and discussion. About this time William R. 
Marshall secured the passage of a bill by the legislature authorizing incor¬ 
poration of a library association. Some two hundred volumes were secured, 
and the first public library in the State was opened. 

The St. Anthony Library Association also sponsored a series of Lyceum 
lectures. Among the speakers were the Reverend E. D. Neill, the Reverend 
Ezekiel Gear, William R. Marshall and Lieutenant R. W. Johnson from 
Fort Snelling. One of the lecturers, a Reverend Mr. Brown, presented in 
his talk on "Reading and Books” a black-list of fiction to be shunned by 
decent-thinking people. On this list he unhappily included "Martin 
Chuzzlewit.” The settlers were too well educated to put up with such 
nonsense, and Brown was taunted until he finally admitted that he had 
never read the Dickens book but had placed it under ban because the title 
was displeasing to him. 

These New Englanders were church going folks and felt the lack of 
churches keenly. The Roman Catholics had commenced their church in 
1849, but the majority of the settlers were Protestants. The first services 
were held in the schoolhouse, which was occupied by all denominations 
in turn. These were strangely mixed congregations, their apparel ranging 
from high silk hats to coonskin caps and from fine velvets to homespun. 
The differences in dress did not, however, carry corresponding social dis¬ 
tinctions, for the strange land, the mutual hardships and difficulties had 
brought people close to each other. Reverend E. D. Neill, preaching every 
other Sunday afternoon, found that his St. Anthony congregations were 
larger and more attentive than those in St. Paul. 

The congregations soon outgrew the schoolhouse, and preparations 


[ 35 ] 


were made for the organization and erection of a number of churches, to 
be built with funds from the East. The first Methodist Episcopal Church 
was organized during the winter of 1849-1850 with Enos Stephens as 
pastor, although the church building was not started until some time later. 
The Baptists organized and planned to build the next year, and other sects 
were encouraged to proceed with their own plans. 

While other congregations were striving to build their churches, the 
Universalists, whose meetings were held in a dismal little hall, were also 
trying to raise money for this purpose. To this end they held the first 
church festival in the state, in the autumn of 18 5 5, on Hennepin Island. 
One feature of this festival was a number of "fine tableaux,” and it was 
some time before the scandal caused by this presentation died down. For 
a period it was "thought . . . likely some souls would be lost,” but times 
change, and eventually other churches also were holding festivals with 
tableaux. 

St. Paul was becoming a prosperous merchant city, and from its posi¬ 
tion of unquestioned leadership it looked down on the struggles of little 
St. Anthony with tolerant but slightly amused eyes. In the spring of 18 50, 
the Minnesota Pioneer, leading St. Paul paper of the day, observed that 
"on Sunday, April 3, a fire broke out in St. Anthony, in the dry grass, and 
burnt over several squares where the buildings will be.” 

It was not, to be sure, an impressive place; its growth had been too 
rapid for an orderly plan, so that it was already an overgrown, sprawling 
village. Huddled near the river were the newer structures of bright un¬ 
painted lumber. Inland were the older dwellings, most of them of logs 
which had already begun to blacken. There were no imposing buildings. 
The first problem had been shelter—anything to put a roof over the head. 
Only after these crude beginnings could the citizens set about building 
their permanent city. 

By 1850 transportation had become the all-important problem of the 
village. The local merchants, looking with jealous eyes on the flow of trade 
to St. Paul, began to make plans to divert a part of it to their own doors. 
Some dreamed of developing commerce to the north. Others coveted the 
Red River trade which passed tantalizingly close to St. Anthony on its 
way to St. Paul. Every one was conscious of the need for regular trans¬ 
portation between St. Anthony and St. Paul; settlers had abandoned the 
village for lack of it, and incoming immigrants had been turned aside. 
The more ambitious hoped to establish St. Anthony as the head of trans¬ 
portation on the Mississippi—if only they could prevail upon the steamboat 
captains to disregard the hazards of the river above St. Paul. 

The first step was the establishment of a regular stagecoach line be¬ 
tween St. Anthony and St. Paul. Early in the summer of 1850, Amherst 
Willoughby and Simon Powers, who had a small livery business in St. Paul, 


[ 36 ] 


put a double seated, half-spring wagon, drawn by two horses, into opera¬ 
tion as a coach. The enterprise prospered at first, but winter brought it to 
a halt for lack of a suitable vehicle. In 18 S1 they put several lumbering, 
red-painted Concord coaches into operation, each with three seats inside 
providing space for nine passengers. Baggage and freight were piled on top, 
behind the driver. 

The state of business was such as to attract competition. During 1851 
Lyman L. Benson and a Mr. Pattison, two young men recently arrived in 
St. Paul from Kalamazoo, Michigan, started operation of a better equipped 
line of large yellow Concord coaches, each drawn by four horses. Both 
lines ran between the two points twice a day. At first both levied a fare 
of 50 cents a passenger each way, but then the rivals, popularly known 
as the "red line” and the "yellow line,” began to compete by cutting rates. 
The differences were settled, however, since there was room and business 
enough for both. 

These coaches ran along an old Indian trail, known as the old Territorial 
Road. About three miles from St. Anthony on this trail stood a "road¬ 
house” or tavern belonging to Stephen Desnoyer, where a cool, deep well 
provided water for the horses, and a bar "quenched the not less thirsty 
pioneer.” This became a popular place for Sunday driving with horses 
rehted from Colonel Allen’s livery stable, as well as a stagecoach stop. 
Also along this road was the Cheever House, where a hydraulic ram had 
been installed to furnish water for the horses. 

Cheever House was on the site which William A. Cheever had platted 
in 1848 as St. Anthony City, the present grounds of the University of 
Minnesota. Near his hotel he built a ninety-foot observation tower, where 
one could "Pay a Dime and Climb” to see the view. The establishment was 
fairly well patronized and the tower brought in a goodly number of dimes, 
but the apparent advantages of St. Anthony at the Falls were too great; 
people went on to that point instead of settling at "Cheevertown.” 

During 1850 successful attempts were made toward establishing St. 
Anthony as the head of navigation. On May 4th, Captain Marsh of the 
steamer Lamartine forced his boat to the foot of beautiful Bridal Veil 
Falls, which then descended sixty feet into the river, some distance below 
St. Anthony. The Lamartine refused to go beyond this strong current, but 
three days later Captain Rogers succeeded in forcing the Anthony Wayne 
as far as the old rafting place, just below the site of the old Tenth Avenue 
bridge. The arrival was a great event, the band played, Governor Ramsey 
and other notables spoke on its significance, and Captain Rogers was pre¬ 
sented with a purse of two hundred dollars. 

St. Anthony’s contention that it was head of navigation was estab¬ 
lished, but "the only difficulty was that it would not stay established.” 
One pioneer observed that "Nature discountenanced, disfavored, and ren- 


[ 37 ] 


dered futile all such artificial efforts.” The Lady Franklin came near Spirit 
Island (above Cheever’s Landing) later in 1850 and was turned back by 
the current. No regular steamship service was established until July, 1853, 
when the Hindoo began making trips up as far as Cheever’s Landing. 
River traffic at St. Anthony reached its climax in 1857; fifty-two steamers 
unloaded there during that year. 

There was still the shallow river above the Falls to be conquered, and 
in this genuine success was achieved. Captain John Rollins, who had a 
great deal of experience with tough navigation problems, believed that it 
was possible to build steamboats capable of making the up-river haul. Iron 
work and machinery were ordered from Maine, shipped by sea to New 
Orleans and then up the Mississippi. Hull and woodwork were constructed 
in St. Anthony during the spring of 1850, and on May 25th the steamer 
Governor Ramsey was launched, made a successful trip to Banfield Island, 
about eight miles, and returned. Next day the boat began making a regular 
run to Sauk Rapids. During the next decade ten steamships were built 
at St. Anthony, among them the Henry M. Rice, the Northern Star, the 
Falls City and the Enterprise, and regular service was established to St. 
Cloud and other northern river points. These boats were built to draw 
little water; one captain boasted that his craft "would run on a heavy fall 
of dew.” 

After 18 50, with the transportation problem partially solved, St. 
Anthony merchants began to succeed in their efforts to secure a share of 
the region’s trade. By 18 53 a business directory listed twenty-nine com¬ 
mercial establishments in St. Anthony, and by 1855 the growing village 
claimed control of the trade in Hennepin County and in sections of 
Ramsey and Benton Counties as well. 

Out of this rapid, confusing growth the institutions and elements of a 
city began to take shape and form. The St. Charles Hotel was completed 
in 18 50. A two-story building, very large for the period, with accom¬ 
modations for seventy-five guests, the hotel also provided a ballroom for 
dancing, and soon became the social center of the village. 

Along with other familiar institutions the St. Anthony folk wanted 
proper and fitting observance of holidays. Especially dear to their New 
England tradition was Thanksgiving, and in 1850 they waited for Gover¬ 
nor Ramsey to proclaim the day. The season passed and no proclamation 
was forthcoming. Unanimously they decided that Ramsey must be of 
"Scotch or Dutch pedigree” to have overlooked such an important occa¬ 
sion. A delegation finally visited his office and applied such pressure that he 
was unable to resist, and he issued a short proclamation. Thanksgiving was 
observed by a grateful people on the 26th of December. 

In the spring of 1851, E. Tyler, a merchant tailor, decided that St. 
Anthony needed a newspaper. He was strongly advised against the venture. 


[ 38 ] 


but managed to enlist the reluctant aid of Judge Isaac Atwater as editor, 
and to secure a press from Chicago, which was set up in a log building. 
On May 31, 18 51, the first issue of the St. Anthony Express appeared. 
This was the only regular chronicle of life in the young city for many 
years. Money was scarce and many subscribers could pay in produce only, 
while commercial establishments were slow converts to advertising. Con¬ 
sequently the young men producing the newspaper lived in the printing 
office and cooked their own meals, which, according to rumor, consisted 
of mush, milk and molasses. 

From its founding, the St. Anthony Express was filled with the great 
expectations common to every pioneer settlement. In the summer of 1851 
the paper observed that it required "no very sagacious observer ... to 
predict the future of the place. The position which St. Anthony occupies 
must inevitably make her the great manufacturing and commercial town 
of the Northwest.” These predictions, unlike those of many ebullient fron¬ 
tier newspapers, were to be fulfilled beyond their authors’ dreams. 

The pioneer newspaper not only expressed the settlers’ hopes; it also 
reflected their moral views. In the St. Anthony Express for February 7, 
1852, the community spoke its mind in the following terms: “There is not 
a gambling institution, or a drinking saloon, or a whiskey grocery, or a 
grog shop in town. We have no room for those who frequent such places.” 
Evidently, with the influx of new settlers, this crusading zeal was lost, for 
in 185 5 the first city council, disregarding the pleas of temperance advo¬ 
cates, licensed the sale of liquor in the community. 

The name of St. Anthony, by 1851, had not only spread to the East, 
but had crossed the sea. It was not the achievements in which its own 
people took pride, however, that brought this fame—it was the possibili¬ 
ties of the hunt. The region surrounding abounded with game of every 
kind—gray wolves, wildcats, raccoons, foxes, deer, prairie hens, partridges, 
and pigeons—yet the country was settled enough so that hunting might 
be done in comfort and safety. The lack of game laws made the area a 
sportsman’s paradise, and in 1851 there was an invasion of gentleman hunt¬ 
ers from many parts of the world. St. Anthony people did not look upon 
these visitors with pride. As one of them scornfully said, “Lords, Sirs and 
Honorables were thick as blackberries.” The rapid settlement of the com¬ 
munity soon reduced the wild life and discouraged the huntsmen. 

Immigration steadily increased. Each spring brought a new influx into 
the territory. In 1852 and 1853 a great many came to St. Anthony; pro¬ 
fessional and business men moved in to supply the increasing needs of the 
community. Special mention, also, was made of the fact that “much 
needed day laborers came.” 

Despite the swift, frenzied building, there were no vacancies, and the 


[ 39 ] 


hotel was usually filled. Families, even prosperous ones, were forced to 
occupy makeshift shelters, for the mill could not turn out lumber fast 
enough for the buyers who were waiting. Business establishments in St. 
Anthony and St. Paul tried vainly to keep up with the demands of a 
rapidly growing population. 

Lumbering developed at a tremendous pace; it was the major interest 
of the community. A prediction that any other industry would rival or 
surpass it would have been ridiculed. By the summer of 18 51, sixteen saws 
were turning out 50,000 feet of lumber a day. The manufacture of lath 
and shingles alone provided employment for 100 men. Each year the 
capacity of the mills increased and more logs came down the river to the 
Falls. 

Ever since the establishment of the old Government grist mill across 
the river, the milling of grain had been regarded as more of a convenience 
than an industry worthy of development. In 1851 R. C. Rogers built, 
at the end of the row of lumber mills, a rude grist mill which was im¬ 
proved with "two run of stone” the next year. In the main, this mill was 
for use of the farmers in the vicinity. In 1854 a larger mill was opened, 
but there was not enough wheat to keep it running until some was brought 
from Iowa, by river-boat and wagon. Flour, in common with most agri¬ 
cultural products, still had to be imported. Although farmers in swiftly 
increasing numbers were discovering the richness of Minnesota soil, it 
was necessary as late as 1853 to import such necessities as butter, lard 
and pork, as well as hay for livestock. And it was several years later 
before any degree of self-sufficiency was reached. 

In the spring of 1854, the Winnebago Indians passed through St. 
Anthony on their way from Watab to the Blue Earth Reservation. In 
return for pennies, cold lunches and gifts they performed their tribal 
dances and sang their strange songs. One Sunday morning during their 
stay a prankster told them that the people who lived in a certain big 
house would enjoy their dancing and would reward them liberally. This 
"big house” was the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which the Reverend 
Creighton was conducting the regular morning service. The Indians, some¬ 
what skeptical, crept up and peered in the windows. Although the people 
of St. Anthony had never suffered an Indian attack, there had been plenty 
of frontier tales to make them nervous. When in the midst of the sermon 
the worshippers glanced up and saw the Indians looking in, the service 
came to an abrupt end, for the congregation fled from the church, leaving 
the minister puzzled and dismayed. The joke was discovered, but worship 
was not resumed that morning. 

In its first year of operation, 1847, the ferry netted a return of $300. 
This income increased with the years, until the growing settlement on 
the west side of the river began to make too great demands upon the 


[ 40 ] 


meager equipment of the ferry line. In 18 54 the Minneapolis Bridge Com¬ 
pany, of which Franklin Steele was the leading spirit, was incorporated. 
Its purpose was to build a bridge across the Mississippi, the first bridge to 
span that mighty stream. 

Thjs structure, designed as a single arch supported by cables, was 
built under the supervision of T. J. Griffith, an engineer from Fort Snell- 
ing. By December 14, 1854, E. H. Conner, a foreman, and five or six 
workmen crossed on the loose planking. After that, foot passengers were 
allowed to cross at ten cents each. In March, in a blasting storm, the 
bridge swayed so violently that the planking cracked up under the strain. 
To prevent a repetition of this disaster, supporting guy wires were placed 
on each side, attached to piers, to hold the structure steady. This delayed 
the completion of the bridge until July 4, 185 5. Upon this date the first 
team crossed, followed by a procession and a celebration. 

The opening of this bridge marked a turning point which few men 
of that time recognized. That same year St. Anthony was incorporated 
as a city, and because of its manufacturing importance, it seemed that it 
might become the dominant city of the river. St. Paul had already altered 
its tone from condescending humor to bitterness, for St. Anthony had 
grown to be a menacing, aggressive rival. But industry and trade crossed 
this bridge also, and the real rival of St. Paul became the newer city on 
the western shore. Here Minneapolis, of which St. Anthony would be but 
a part, was to rise. 


From These Wildernesses 

The Growth of Minneapolis 


The land on the west side of the river, near the Fort, had been settled 
upon at different times by missionaries, traders and squatters. The mis¬ 
sionaries went on to other duties, the traders moved to more opportune 
fields, and the refugees from the Selkirk colonies were removed by mili¬ 
tary force after they had built their little homes and put the land under 
cultivation. 

Despite the fact that the area was part of the military reservation 
and subject to the jurisdiction of the authorities of Fort Snelling, men 
dreamed always of taking land there. It was the most attractive spot in 
the region, and obviously it was certain to become an important townsite. 
But it was as hard to get as it was attractive. 

After earlier attempts to secure the land by more honorable means 
had met with failure, political influence finally opened the way. On Feb¬ 
ruary 15, 1849, Robert Smith, Congressman from Illinois, asked the 
authorities in Washington for permission to lease the old Government 
grist mill and house for a period of five years. "I shall move into the 
Territory of Minnesota after the adjournment of Congress,” he wrote, 
"and I wish to secure this house for my family to live in, and to fix up 
the old grist mill to grind corn ...” His request was approved, with 
the provision that the commandant of Fort Snelling also give his con¬ 
sent. Major Woods, then in command at the Fort, grudgingly gave his 
approval but expressed his suspicion as to Mr. Smith’s real purpose. "I 
doubt much if his aim in wishing to settle there is not in expectation 
that the reserve will be taken off.” Smith took possession in May but did 
not bring his family to the territory and did not live there himself. After 
inspecting the land he wrote again to the Secretary of War, requesting 
additional land for raising other provisions. This request, too, was granted. 

Major Woods’ suspicions were amply justified, for although Smith 
visited the place he never operated it himself, and year after year he 
returned to Congress from his district in Illinois. He put one Reuben 
Bean in charge of the property. Bean, with his family, lived in the dwell¬ 
ing formerly occupied by the miller from the Fort. It was years before 
Smith undertook any development of the site, yet his occupation of the 
land was important, for it was the opening wedge for further settlement. 

Colonel John H. Stevens, with a party of ten, arrived in St. Anthony 


on Friday, April 27, 1849, in search of a site for an agricultural colony. 
It was typical of the times that among his supplies Stevens brought 38 
gallons of whiskey. According to his contemporaries the Colonel was not 
a drinking man, but he had “brought the whiskey with him to have a 
remedy on hand in case he was bitten by a snake, and to have it in his 
power to extend the usual western hospitality.” 

Stevens and his companions ranged northward along the eastern shore 
of the river. They were terribly disappointed in the soil, which was sandy, 
not like the rich black earth of their native Illinois. Though they were 
shown fine crops raised from this sandy soil, it still would not do for 
them. 

On the other side of the river, however, they found the type of soil 
they most desired, and this proved the crowning disappointment of the 
expedition, for it was doubly forbidden land; the Indians and the military 
each had a claim upon it. The party disbanded then, and each man went 
his own way. Stevens decided to go to St. Paul and then to Fort Snelling. 
He had traveled through the land on the west side of the river near the 
Fort and was impressed by its beauty and its promise. This was the land 
he wanted—and could not have. 

At the Fort, Stevens became postmaster, an important position in the 
Territory. But of even more consequence was the fact that he met Frank¬ 
lin Steele. If any man could help him obtain land west of the river, it 
was Steele, for Steele, more than anyone else, was the power at the Fort 
and at St. Anthony. Steele found he could rely upon Stevens, for almost 
from their first meeting the Colonel became an immoderate admirer of 
the ambitious and enterprising sutler. 

On a June morning in 1849, Steele asked Stevens to go with him to 
the Falls. On this journey, Steele confided that the military reservation 
was to be reduced in size and that it might be possible to secure from 
the Secretary of War permission to take up a claim to which title could 
be confirmed after the reservation was reduced. A congressman from 
Illinois had secured land; Stevens, with Steele’s aid, could do the same. 
A claim was staked out, to the north of Smith’s and equally valuable 
from the standpoint of potential water power control. Steele’s influence 
evidently carried weight, for Secretary of War Marcy readily consented 
to the occupancy. 

Just above the rapids, on the bank of the river, Stevens built the first 
permanent private residence on the western side of the river, approximately 
on the location of the present railway express terminal. It was one and a 
half stories high, with white painted clapboard siding and a broad veranda 
overlooking the river—a New England farmhouse transplanted in lonely 
isolation. It was surrounded by trees, and soon lilacs were planted. In this 


[ 43 ] 


dwelling almost every activity of the future settlement first was shel¬ 
tered. It served in turn as hotel, meeting place, church, land office, bank 
and theatre. 

Earlier in that year of 1849, Philander Prescott, trader, farmer and 
interpreter, had attempted to stake a claim on the forbidden ground, on 
what is now the east side of Minnehaha Avenue. He, however, was not 
allowed to remain. Later Franklin Steele took possession of this claim. 

In the winter of the same year, Charles Mousseaux, with permission 
of the Fort authorities, settled on a piece of land on the eastern shore 
of Lake Calhoun. He erected a shanty where the Pond brothers’ mission 
had once stood, and he was not disturbed in his claim. He was a long 
distance from the power site, so far away indeed that not even the wild¬ 
est dreamer would have guessed that the spot was so soon to be embraced 
within the limits of a great city. 

Stevens’ claim aroused a good deal of speculation. St. Anthony people 
predicted that a town would be started soon on the western shore. James 
M. Goodhue, indefatigable booster of St. Paul, tried to quench these 
ambitions of his neighbors under a flood of editorial derision in his Minne¬ 
sota Pioneer. On February 27, 1850, he laughed at the exaggerated hopes 
of the people of the east shore settlement, suggesting that the non-existent 
city across the river "be called ’All Saints,’ so as to head off the whole 
calendar of Saints.” But these earnest men sometimes acted seriously upon 
suggestions meant as jibes, and All Saints was accepted for a time as the 
name of the settlement. 

In the spring of 1850 Stevens brought a drove of ten good cows from 
Muscatine, Iowa, at a cost, including transportation, of eleven dollars 
each. In the summer he took up the plow and turned forty acres of the 
fine prairie sod, and the following year these acres bore a prime crop of 
wheat, corn, oats, buckwheat, potatoes and vegetables. When Stevens 
came, there were only some three hundred farms in the entire Territory 
of Minnesota, and there was little interest in agriculture on the northwest 
frontier. Stevens’ farm, however, impressed many of the incoming immi¬ 
grants, and attracted them to the land to the west of the river. They 
regarded the future site of Minneapolis as a fine farming region, and the 
earliest settlement on the west bank was laid out with that in view. The 
utmost the founders hoped for was that their community might be recog¬ 
nized in time as a suburb of the industrial city of St. Anthony. However, 
it was not long before more imaginative men visioned an imposing city, 
for they saw its industrial possibilities, as well as its fertile soil. 

Stevens moved into his house August 6, 1850. Soon afterwards he 
brought his family there, and on a cold bleak day in April of the next 
year, his daughter Mary was born. That year other permanent settlers 
came and the anxious, tragic struggle for land began. 


[ 44 ] 


Not every man could reach the ear of the Secretary of War to secure 
permission to take up land on the Reserve. In the autumn of 1850 Dr. 
Hezekiah Fletcher of Maine was allowed to stake out a claim. He chose 
one "far back,” on what is now Portland Avenue between 14th and 15th 
streets. John Jackins was the next settler. The land he chose, and on 
which he built a small house, lay just back of Stevens’ claim. A group of 
men, among them Allan Harmon and Dr. A. E. Ames, arrived in 1851 
with permits to take up claims. 

Stevens’ example gave courage to others. Forbidden ground did not 
seem so forbidding after one man had taken possession without penalty. 
It was better land, and pioneers were not timid men. During the winter 
of 1851-52 rumors spread even to eastern states that the reduction of the 
Reserve was impending, and settlers came prepared to file claims on the 
west side of the river. 

In the spring claims were staked, rude and clumsy shanties were built, 
and the more ambitious claimants broke small patches of land. These 
were intended as indications of proposed possession, but later they became 
tests of the feasibility of settlement, for it was evident that unless an 
agreement with the military authorities could be reached, it was a hope¬ 
less fight. All who maintained claims before the land was released did so 
under official permits or with the connivance of the post authorities. 
Friends of Steele seemed to have little to worry about, aside from the 
usual hardships of pioneer existence. 

A war for possession followed, one in which would-be settlers faced 
unequal odds. Men crossed the frozen ice in winter to "the Canaan of 
their hopes” and blazed trees to mark off claims they hoped to win for 
themselves. Most of them were without the influence to secure permits, 
but hoped that sheer daring might serve. Officers at the Fort were both 
tyrannical and corrupt. Settlers were told that they must turn over a 
half interest in the claim at time of entry. Those who refused met with 
misfortune. At two different times, shanties were torn down and improve¬ 
ments destroyed by soldiers. Some claimants gave up in face of the heavy 
odds against them, but others stubbornly returned and built again. 

Thus, across the river from St. Anthony, Minnesota witnessed its own 
version of the land rush, smaller in scale than others in western frontier 
history, but equally fierce and bitter. Such a land rush was apt to occur 
wherever legal barriers held off for a time the natural flow of settlement 
and immigration. Behind such barriers the prospective settlers gathered 
like water behind a dam, and the moment the barrier was swept away, 
like angry waters they surged out over the land. Friendship and fellow 
feeling counted for nothing;- a loophole in a neighbor’s claim made him 
a legitimate victim. It was not safe to leave a claim cabin empty even 
for a few minutes; the claimant might return to find the shack occu- 


[ 45 ] 


pied by a “jumper” who could be removed only with violence or money. 
Sometimes it was necessary to guard a cabin with rifles, night and day. 

To protect themselves from "jumping,” the actual settlers organized 
an "Equal Right and Impartial Protection Claim Association,” and a 
committee was set up to act on all disputes about claims. Measures so 
severe that no jumper "could be sure of his life” were threatened by the 
claim association. When threats proved insufficient, a cat-o’-nine-tails 
was laid across the naked back of one trespasser, the only instance of 
actual violence, but one which impressed "jumpers.” Of course, there 
was none too much "right” on either side, since legally, with few excep¬ 
tions, all were trespassers. Therefore compromise was often necessary. 

Because of their high hopes for its future, the name of the new city 
was of great importance. All Saints had been accepted in some quarters; 
others felt that it did not lend proper dignity nor distinction. Albion was 
suggested. Practical businessmen wanted the name Lowell, since they be¬ 
lieved the new settlement might become the textile center of the west. 
A gallant proposed that it be called Adasville in compliment to a local 
belle, Ada Hoag. John Stevens proposed honoring the earlier pioneers by 
naming the village Hennepin and the county Snelling. Winona was also 
considered. 

At first the name Albion found official favor, and when Hennepin 
County was organized in 18 52, the County Commissioners selected that 
name for the settlement, and the County Clerk entered it in the records. 
This action met with general disapproval, and was overruled by popular 
feeling. Many letters went out from the community datelined All Saints. 
The controversy was heated, each group staunchly championing its choice, 
until on November 5, 1852, in an article in the S/. Anthony Express, 
Charles Hoag, a teacher "not unfamiliar with letters,” proposed the name 
"Minnehapolis.” "This name, with its nice adjustment of the Indian minne 
with the Greek polis” found immediate favor with all factions. The "h” 
was dropped to make the word more musical, and the new city became 
Minneapolis. 

The first Minneapolis school was opened late in 18 51, in an old lum¬ 
bermen’s shanty on the Anson Northup claim, near the present Mil¬ 
waukee station. Miss Mary A. Scofield was the teacher. There were very 
few pupils, but by December 3, 1852, when Miss Mary E. Miller took 
over the school, the number had grown. But however great the need, no 
schoolhouse could be built, since legal title to the land could not be 
secured. Miss Hartwell started a second school in July, 1852, in a frame 
building on the corner of Hennepin Avenue and Fourth Street. Though 
this building was larger, it did not prove much better for the purpose 
than the smaller one near the river, for it had been boarded with green 
lumber and the siding had curled. By fall, wind and rain were whipping 


[ 46 ] 


through the cracks, and the school was forced to move to the parlor of 
John Jackins’ home, where the term was completed. 

Ard Godfrey, one of the early St. Anthony settlers, was also attracted 
by land on the west side of the river. In 1853 he preempted 160 acres 
lying between Minnehaha Creek and the Mississippi, and later erected a 
small sawmill at the mouth of the creek. 

During the latter part of 1853, Thomas Chambers opened the Pioneer 
Store on what is now Bridge Square, so that the settlers no longer had to 
cross by ferry and trade in St. Anthony. 

By 1854 settlement had proceeded far enough to make a survey of the 
entire townsite necessary, and William R. Marshall was secured to do the 
job. The plat was never recorded, however, due to the fact that there 
were no clear titles to the property. 

Until this year, residents on the west side of the river received and 
sent mail through the post office at St. Anthony. Now Dr. Fletcher was 
appointed Minneapolis postmaster, but there was no arrangement for 
extending delivery of mail to the new settlement. Dr. A. E. Ames, whose 
duties frequently took him to St. Anthony, made a practice of bringing 
the mail back with him, in his pockets or in his hat. It was a year and 
a half before the government extended its route to Minneapolis. The 
"post office” was in Dr. Fletcher’s office on the corner of First and Helen 
Streets. 

Many citizens of the new settlement had confidence in the future of 
Minnesota as an agricultural state. They had claimed their property as 
farm land, and planned to use it for that purpose. Early in the 185 0’s 
they formed the Hennepin County Agricultural Society, which opened, 
the first agricultural fair in the state on October 20, 18 54. It was held 
on the present site of Bridge Square, which was the important center of 
Minneapolis life. The fair was addressed by many distinguished men, and 
visitors and settlers alike were impressed by the showing made. The St. 
Anthony Express commented that it "would have done credit to one of 
the oldest and richest agricultural counties in New York.” 

The government, or at least the military authorities, had placed every 
possible obstacle in the way of settlement, but as the time for the reduc¬ 
tion of the Reserve and the legal opening of the land grew near, it appeared 
that there was an even more formidable opposition on the outside. In 
1854 it was announced that the plats were to be forwarded from Wash¬ 
ington and lots sold at auction to the highest bidder. This was the usual 
procedure, but in this case it was likely to deprive the original claimants 
of their land. The region was now so well settled that it was easy to fore¬ 
see the future importance of this townsite. Land speculators from the 
east, attracted by this new promise of rich and easy "pickings,” were 


[ 47 ] 


already swarming into St. Paul, so that in an open sale the claimants 
could hardly hope to compete successfully with the speculators. 

It was not in the nature of these men to sit idly by and see them¬ 
selves deprived of their homes and hopes. Moreover they did not intend 
to pay more than the standard government price of $1.25 an acre for 
preemption claims. They had dealt with the "jumpers”; they felt they 
could deal with speculators. In this new crisis they turned again to the 
Claim Association. Thomas W. Pierce was selected as bidder for the organ¬ 
ization, and all of the members were instructed to gather at the sale so 
that they might intimidate, by force if necessary, any speculators bold 
enough to bid. Public opinion was strongly with the settlers, and it was 
hinted that Governor Gorman would call out the militia to handle the 
situation. 

The plats did not arrive on schedule, however, and the sale had to 
be postponed. This gave the Association a little time, and a committee 
was sent to Washington to protest the unjust procedure of the public 
sale. The men departed for Washington on October 9, 18 54. At first they 
met only with rebuffs, but finally their persistence won a stay of proceed¬ 
ings from the Secretary of the Interior. Dr. Ames, a member of the com¬ 
mittee, remained in Washington and was at last successful in securing 
from Congress a reduction of the Reserve and a provision allowing the 
actual settlers to buy the land at $1.25 per acre. April and May of 1855 
saw a happy conclusion of the struggle for the land; the settlers proved 
their claims and development began in earnest. At the completion of pre¬ 
emptions in 185 5, there was not a quarter section in the entire county 
which was not occupied by actual settlers. 

Another important matter stirred the settlers to organized action in 
18 54. A temperance league was formed, determined that no "drunkard 
maker” should be allowed in the village, and a $9,000 fund raised for the 
purpose of applying "moral and legal suasion” to this end. 

Business and industrial development had been seriously retarded, of 
course, by the uncertainty of permanent ownership of the land. When 
this obstacle was removed a building boom immediately ensued. Lots were 
selling at a premium, and stores, churches, homes, and shops were built 
at feverish speed. Cottages began to replace the log cabins. By autumn 
more than 100 buildings had been erected. 

In both St. Anthony arid Minneapolis the real estate business prom¬ 
ised such golden rewards that men of all professions abandoned their regu¬ 
lar callings for it. These were boom days in Minneapolis, and along with 
sound industrial and mercantile development there was speculation, with 
high prices and fabulous interest rates. 

On March 4, 1856, St. Anthony was detached from Ramsey County 


[ 48 ] 


and made a part of Hennepin County, and during the same year an act 
of the legislature provided for the incorporation of the town of Minne¬ 
apolis. The first platted map of Minneapolis was produced in 1857 by 
Orlando Talcott. As if to prove their existence, a number of the most 
impressive structures reared during the year were sketched in meticulous 
detail on the margin of the map. The most impressive and expensive of 
these buildings was the Nicollet House, which had been constructed at 
the corner of Hennepin and Washington Avenues at a cost of $50,000. 
The year had increased the number of buildings to 444. Minneapolis and 
St. Anthony now had approximately the same population, somewhat over 
4,000, yet the $512,000 spent for new buildings in Minneapolis that year 
was almost double the total expended for the same purpose in St. Anthony. 

That year a brick schoolhouse was finished—"the best school building 
north of St. Louis.” Unfortunately it was not allowed to serve the com¬ 
munity long. From the beginning, the citizens were determined to pro¬ 
vide decent school facilities for their children, and a mass meeting had 
been called for that purpose in 18 54. Nothing definite was accomplished 
at that time, but the next year they petitioned the legislature to authorize 
a loan for the erection of a school. The legislature approved the request 
in March, 1856, and in May the townsfolk voted to erect a two-story 
brick schoolhouse, and bought the land for it. 

The fine new building was destroyed by fire in the early 1860’s. Two 
Scottish school boys had been severely punished by a schoolmaster who 
was an extreme disciplinarian. Shortly afterward the fire occurred. At the 
same time the boys’ parents, who had angrily resented the severity of 
their sons’ punishment, disappeared overnight with all their family. It 
was believed, of course, that this family had started the fire. In any case, 
the community had to start all over again with plans for a new school. 

That same eventful year brought to the west river community its 
first newspaper, when W. A. Hotchkiss purchased the Northwestern 
Democrat, published in St. Anthony since 1853, and moved it to Minne¬ 
apolis. But although the community was large enough to support a news¬ 
paper, this one survived only a short time. 

It was at the dizzy height of the land craze that the financial panic 
of 1857 struck the nation, and dealt severely with the cities at the Falls. 
Real estate lost about one third of its valuation. Wages dived from $1.50 
per day to 90 cents. Imports into the territory dropped 50 per cent in a 
year. Real estate speculators were ruined by tumbling prices, and hundreds 
of smaller fortunes were wiped out within a few months. Towns which 
had been bustling with activity and alive with ambitious dreams a short 
time before relapsed into utter stagnation. 

The few lumber workers who were employed during the winter of 
1857 did not receive pay which had been promised them. Early the fol- 


[ 49 ] 


lowing summer they elected a committee of twelve to demand these 
wages, and in desperation they threatened to cut the boom, release the 
accumulated logs and sell them down river, if they were not paid. But 
even this dire threat was ineffectual, for the entire community had been 
stricken by the same blight. 

There was not enough money in circulation to carry on ordinary busi¬ 
ness, and “wildcat paper” was printed for use as currency. Hennepin 
County issued $6,000 worth of script, and the city of St. Anthony 
$5,000. This was expected to “relieve many a poor man.” At first the 
merchants were reluctant to accept this substitute money, and did so 
only after they found that they must either be paid in script or “trust 
their goods out, or keep them in their stores, suffering a depreciation.” 
Even lumber sometimes served as a medium of circulation. 

Before the panic, there had been an announcement that a competitor 
city might enter the race with St. Anthony, Minneapolis and St. Paul. 
Franklin Steele had purchased the Fort Snelling site, at the convergence 
of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, and since in those days river 
transportation was so decisive a factor, it looked as if this settlement, 
which Steele planned to call Minnesota City, might become a dangerous 
rival. But Steele’s plan which had made the three cities a "little nervous” 
was completely shattered by the financial panic. 

The next year the following item appeared in the Daily Minnesotian: 
"MONEY GETTING PLENTIER ... A gentleman yesterday in¬ 
formed us that three persons voluntarily came to him and paid some 
accounts in good currency. What’s broke loose?” The headline was hardly 
warranted by business conditions, which were showing only a gradual 
improvement. 

The panic, though it brought disaster to so many people, did not 
have an entirely adverse effect on the cities themselves. It actually in¬ 
creased their control of Northwest trade, and served to deflate unhealthy 
speculation. The “late revulsion” was also of indirect benefit in that it 
brought a new influx of settlers. Throughout the East, people who had 
been ruined by the disaster were turning westward, and there were few 
adventurers or fortune hunters among them. They were common folk, 
homeseekers and homebuilders. It was said of such immigration that it 
“will mark an epoch in our history, and will be of more advantage to us 
than so many speculators and schemers who bring no wealth into the 
country . . . and can never create any.” 

The year 18 57 marked the opening of the first place in which 
theatrical performances were held. Ivory T. Woodman opened Woodman’s 
Hall, on Washington and Second Avenue S., with a dazzling presentation 
of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by the Sallie St. Clair Troupe. Another milestone 


[ 50 ] 


had been marked the year before with the visit to Minneapolis of the 
child songstress Adelina Patti, who came up the river on a concert tour 
with Ole Bull, the famous violinist. 

Town government was organized in Minneapolis in 18 58, and H. T. 
Welles was elected president of the city council. This first form of gov¬ 
ernment was continued for four years but proved to be impractical. It 
was abandoned for the simpler township form, which was used until the 
incorporation of the city. 

Development continued steadily, though it was far too slow for those 
impatient ones who had been nourished on the wild speculation of the 
decade before. Eastern capital now came in, and business enterprises began 
to be placed on a more solid basis. An instance of the influx of eastern 
money was the establishment of the first bank in St. Anthony, December, 
1858, by Miles A. Bradley of New York. 

From the earliest days, vacationists had been attracted by the natural 
beauties of Minnesota. First Fort Snelling, and now the towns at the 
Falls, attracted visitors from every section of the United States. By 1856 
the existing boarding houses and hotels were crowded beyond capacity, 
and in 1857 Captain James M. Winslow began construction of an elabo¬ 
rate hotel in St. Anthony, high on the bank above the river. A dignified 
building of gray stone, no effort was spared to make it a place of luxury 
and ease. To complete its elegance a gold-plated archangel weathervane 
was mounted on a flagpole in front of the building. The archangel had 
been made in Lyons, France, for the French exhibit at an American ex¬ 
position, after which it mysteriously disappeared. Winslow discovered it 
in the possession of a trader in Wisconsin. 

Before the hotel was completed it was considered too ambitious and 
adventurous a scheme. One newspaper commented that it was in "typical 
Winslow style—with a cupola and mortgage on top.” Friendlier prophets, 
however, predicted that "it would be surpassed by no house in the United 
States.” The critics were confounded by the hotel’s brilliant success. At 
one event, the celebration of the opening of the railroad to LaCrosse, 
500 guests were entertained in the sumptuous banquet rooms. 

A pageant of Southern tourists with their Negro slaves moved up 
the river to the cities at the Falls. In addition to the enjoyment of the 
river voyage, they came to view Minnehaha Falls, Lake Minnetonka, the 
Minneapolis chain of lakes and the rugged bluffs of the Upper Mississippi. 
On the eastern bank of the river, not far from the Winslow House, "the 
old Chalybeate Springs” drew many to drink of their supposedly bene¬ 
ficial mineral waters. In these "palmy days,” Southern belles in crinoline 
and gentlemen in attire more elegant than the villagers had ever seen 
crowded the log platform and the wooden steps leading to the springs. 


Once the hotel was a proven success, Winslow, who had irons in many 
fires, sold it to C. W. McLean for the record sum of $160,000. 

For Winslow it had been a surprisingly profitable venture, but McLean 
was not so lucky. The course of history conspired against him. Intellec¬ 
tual conviction became passion as Northerners felt their interests and 
freedom endangered by the spread of slavery. As early as June 18 54, a 
call had been circulated for an anti-slavery convention in St. Anthony; 
the announcement set forth the issues with wrathy clarity. "A systematic 
and high handed attempt is being made to 'crush out’ the spirit of liberty 
from the land, and to diffuse, nationalize and perpetuate slavery. The 
North is sinking into a degraded vassalage, through the defection of its 
own public men.” The convention was held in the Congregational Church 
at St. Anthony on July 4th. The "radical views” of civic and religious 
leaders such as John North, the Reverend C. G. Ames and the Reverend 
Charles Secombe were given expression. The next year Ames founded the 
St. Anthony Republican, which was strongly abolitionist in tone, and 
reflected the increasing anti-slavery sentiment. 

The display of Negro slaves by Southerners increased the heat of the 
controversy. Those whose business prosperity depended upon the tourist 
trade became ardent Southern partisans. Abolitionists pointedly warned 
such as these to moderate their views, suggesting that they "put gold on 
one scale and liberty on the other” and see which weighed the more. 

At length the abolitionists determined upon a demonstration which 
would inform Negroes of their rights in Minnesota. Eliza Winston, a 
Negro nursemaid, who had traveled North with Colonel Christmas and 
his family, was informed that she could not be forced to return to the 
South in servitude. The case was argued before the court in August 
1860 and the woman was freed. 

That evening, Southern partisans gathered in a menacing throng about 
the house of W. D. Babbitt, where Miss Winston had been given shelter, 
loudly demanding that she be returned to her master. The house was 
barricaded against them, and in the half light of early morning she was 
taken to a safer refuge by Frank Stone, superintendent of schools. Eventu¬ 
ally she fled to Canada. The Southern tourist trade slackened as a result 
of this affair and the anti-slavery opinion which it represented, and the 
Winslow Flouse began to lose its fashionable trade. 

Business conditions as a whole had not recovered completely from 
the disaster of 1857. As Mrs. Ard Godfrey wrote to her sister in Maine 
in 1861, "times have been hard in Minnesota for the past three years: 
but all feel in hopes the coming year will bring a change . . . money 
is scarce.” 

Despite set-backs, Minneapolis and St. Anthony were well settled 

[52] 


cities by 1860. On the west side of the river it had not been entirely 
certain where the business center of the town should be located, but 
gradually the choice seemed to focus on Bridge Square, since the sus¬ 
pension bridge forced commerce through that channel. Facing the Square 
stood the Nicollet House, Minneapolis’ most imposing inn, while on 
either side were straggling one-story shops and stores. In the center of 
it all was a mud puddle, known as the "goose pond.” One of the features 
of the square was the lending library of Thomas Hale Williams, in a 
book store. Later this was moved into the Center Block, where it was 
known as the Athenaeum and became the foundation of the present public 
library. 

The rivals of Bridge Square were the few stores along Twentieth 
Avenue North, and the stores about the Cataract House at Washington 
and Sixth Avenue South. It was years before Nicollet Avenue was con¬ 
sidered a business street, and Hennepin’s highest hope was to become a 
fashionable residential district. The business streets boasted wooden side¬ 
walks; elsewhere there were only packed dirt paths, which in wet weather 
turned to sticky mud. 

On the other side of the river St. Anthony had expanded. With the 
Winslow House on the high ground above the river bank, and the in¬ 
creasing number of mills, it was the more impressive of the two cities. 
However, little had been done to develop the University. Only Old Main 
Hall had been erected, and now it had neither faculty nor students. 

As 1861 opened, the accumulated bitterness of years of sectional 
controversy neared the point of open conflict between the newly-formed 
Confederacy and the Federal Union. Even before the forces of the Con¬ 
federacy had fired upon Fort Sumter, a meeting of Minneapolis citizens 
had offered to enlist "to aid in the protection of the flag of our country.” 
When President Lincoln called for troops to defend the Union, Minne¬ 
apolis men responded gallantly and enthusiastically. A newspaper in a 
neighboring city describes one defense meeting as follows: "A great mass 
meeting of the citizens of Old Hennepin was held in Bridge Square today, 
to consider our present troubles. A stand was erected near the Liberty 
Pole, at the top of which, floating in the breeze, was the glorious Stars 
and Stripes, which was saluted again and again by our enthusiastic young 
men, who, in the absence of a field piece, burnt their powder in six large 
anvils ...” Some carried military enthusiasm to such excess that boys 
under fifteen years of age were being instructed in the use of the broad¬ 
sword. 

The war brought a new interruption to the progress of the communi¬ 
ties at the Falls. Even had there been capital available for further invest¬ 
ments the labor supply was so depleted that no work could be under¬ 
taken. Women and boys were employed in many places. Trade was para- 


[ 53 ] 


lyzed. Farmers used old tools and equipment, and bought only the barest 
essentials on their infrequent trips to town. 

River traffic came to a standstill. The boats which had operated above 
St. Anthony Falls were sold to the Government for use as transports on 
the shallow rivers of the Southwest. The Southern tourist trade had now 
stopped completely, and the elegant Winslow House was closed and its 
furnishings sold. Telegraph wires had reached Minneapolis in 1860, so 
news of the war was not lacking. This news was the major interest of 
those who remained at home.* 

The falling off of river transportation made a railroad imperative for 
the life of the towns. Action had been pending on this problem since 
1853, but through mismanagement or misfortune every promotional plan 
had failed. The intense desire for railroad facilities had led the legisla¬ 
ture to make a number of unwise commitments. Early in 1862 the St. 
Paul and Pacific Railway was chartered by the State, and took over the 
properties of the old Minnesota and Pacific venture. That spring there 
was not a mile of completed railway trackage in the entire State; a few 
stretches of neglected, weed-covered grading, where the going had been 
easy, were the only visible evidence of the ambitious project. In early 
summer, though, ten miles of track connecting St. Anthony and St. Paul 
were completed. On June 28, 1862, a trial run was made with a wood- 
burning locomotive, called the William Crooks , and two coaches. This 
was the first successful railroad construction in the State, and was placed 
in regular operation July 2nd. Fare was 45 cents each way, including 
free transportation to hotels. 

This coming of the first railroad seemed to mark 1862 as an auspi¬ 
cious year on the Northwest frontier. Yet it was in that same year that 
one of Minnesota’s great tragedies occurred. With the Civil War in prog¬ 
ress and the soldiers engaged far from Minnesota, the Sioux Indians 
thought they saw the one last opportunity to save their vanishing lands. 
The Sioux Outbreak, which began in Redwood in August, terrorized 
white settlements throughout Minnesota and brought hundreds of panic 
driven refugees into Minneapolis, even from such nearby points as Excel¬ 
sior. They came in wagons with a few hastily collected belongings, driving 
their livestock, and the people of Minneapolis organized to feed and shel¬ 
ter them until the danger was over. Whatever military power the Sioux 
possessed was crushed by their defeat at Wood Lake on September 23, 
1862, and the frontier once more returned to peaceful activities. 

* Hale, Mary Thayer, Early Minneapolis, Page 16. Parsons, Story of Minneapolis, 
(Page 69) implies that there was no telegraph at this time and that news was brought by 
steamboat. Hale is corroborated by the following: Folwell, W. W., History of Minnesota, 
Vol. 2, pp. 65, 66; St. Anthony Falls Evening News, Nov. 17, 1860. 


[ 54 ] 


After the close of the Civil War came a period of swift, almost break¬ 
neck expansion. All industries, including the railroads, made great strides 
forward. Developments that had been withheld during the years of the 
panic and the war now went forward with unbelievable swiftness. Once 
more immigrants were streaming into the Northwest. Settlement extended 
to the Dakota Territory, thus opening a new market to the cities. Agri¬ 
cultural production rose, and there were increased demands also for the 
products of the cities. Railroad expansion strove vainly to keep up with 
settlement. 

During the 1860’s St. Paul still maintained her unquestioned trade 
and commercial leadership. Minneapolis and St. Anthony might resent 
this fact, but their own rapid industrial progress during this period was 
due in large part to the very fact that they were situated next door to 
the premier city of the Northwest. 

Other ambitious towns of the State considered themselves rivals of 
the three cities. Stillwater, Hastings, Red Wing, St. Peter and Winona, 
each in its day had hopes of emerging as the center of the northwestern 
empire. But none could offer the inducements available in St. Paul, Min¬ 
neapolis and St. Anthony, so that one by one they receded into the back¬ 
ground, to assume the relatively obscure role of trade tributaries. 

Minneapolis and St. Paul now began their long contest to see which 
should become the railway center of the State. When the first railroad 
reached Minneapolis proper in September 1865, a local editor proclaimed, 
over his front page, "A NEW ERA! Minneapolis Opened To The World! 
MINNEAPOLIS THE MAGNET OF THE WEST! The immortal has 
triumphed over the perishable, the celestial over the terrestial . . . The 
Minnesota Central Railway has reached its terminus—Minneapolis! . . . 
Destiny, always moving among the sources of power, will build here the 
Lawrence and Lowell of the West, and to us will come the great multi¬ 
tude.” This and similar outbursts elicited the sour comment from a St. 
Paul newspaper that "if it [Minneapolis] is a magnet, it is a poor one, 
for it don’t draw.” 

Horace Greeley visited Minneapolis at this time and wrote a series of 
impressions for his paper in New York. "St. Paul has some 13,000 inhabi¬ 
tants, while this place, including St. Anthony’s Falls . . . has some 
8,000 and there seems to be a jealous rivalry between them which is 
absurd . . . MINNEAPOLIS HAS ADVANTAGE ENOUGH IN 
HER ENORMOUS WATER POWER ... it has no superior but 
Niagara.” This enthusiastic report caught the attention of the nation. 

Meanwhile Minneapolis was shouting her own praises to all who would 
listen. A vague excitement hung over the city—anything might happen. 
It was a wonderful world, full of surprising and very profitable oppor- 


tunities. The newspapers reflected this breathless, naive wonder in dis¬ 
patches like the following: "Do you know, fellow citizens, that business 
is actually being carried on in this town in the night time by an illuminat¬ 
ing fluid called Gas? ... It is one of the privileges of Minneapolis, that 
she is not likely to be cursed with such gas companies as dominate over 
large cities ... a gas extracted from petroleum may prove of great service 
to her, because it can be manufactured by the consumer." This was one 
of the "privileges” of early Minneapolis that was not to last. 

No other business rose to such extremes of madness as real estate. 
It was serious advice, seriously given, when property holders of Minne¬ 
apolis were told to "strike while the iron is hot. So long as there is a 
demand for real estate, you must advance your prices and valuations, one 
thousand per cent if necessary, and perhaps you will get them . . . The 
goose that lays the golden eggs has been seen on different lots by trust¬ 
worthy individuals. She is going her rounds . . .” 

While St. Anthony had been the scene of the earliest and most spec¬ 
tacular development in lumber milling, Minneapolis soon equaled its 
activity. Together the mills built or in building by 1857 were estimated 
to have a combined annual capacity of 60 to 75 million feet of lumber. 
Thirteen thousand shingles and 20,000 lath were turned out daily, and 
about 150,000,000 feet of logs were brought down the river that year. 

There was ample power, and the timber supply seemed to be inex¬ 
haustible. Lumber was turned out in larger quantities than could be used 
by the Minnesota communities, thriving and multiplying as they were. 
However, there was a ready market down the river, at St. Louis and points 
south. The lumber was put up in huge rafts, containing from one million 
to two million feet, and floated down. These clumsy affairs, sometimes 
drawn by steam tugs, sometimes borne with the current, were guided by 
big stern oars that kept them in the channel and prevented them from 
being broken on shallows, bars and curving banks. 

By 1865 the space on the banks of the river in both towns was taken 
up by flour and lumber mills, and mills were being built away from the 
river, to be operated by steam power. Five years later 118 million feet 
of lumber was cut, and production was still on the upgrade. 

Every fall the city would ring to the lusty carousals, the songs, stories, 
and highly skilled "cussing” of the lumberjacks, awaiting departure to 
the winter camps in the northern woods. In March the scarlet-and-green- 
shirted clan would throng the city again, a winter’s pay in their pockets, 
eager for the delights of the city which had been denied them through 
the drear, long winter. Soon they were broke again—out of a job until 
the ice went out in April, until the saws once more began to hum and 
smoke reappeared in the mill chimneys. 


[ 56 ] 


The coming and going of the lumberjacks marked the seasons for Min¬ 
neapolis as surely as a flight of geese or a budding tree. They were criti¬ 
cized as wasteful and wild and looked upon with disdain by more respect¬ 
able citizens. Yet lumbering, which could not have existed without these 
men, was even then laying the financial base upon which industry in 
Minneapolis and agriculture in the surrounding area were to be developed. 

Agriculture was now well established, and Minnesota had begun ex¬ 
porting agricultural products. Potatoes and wheat were shipped out in 
constantly larger quantities. The towns at the Falls, of course, shared in 
this trade. It was said in May 1860, that "upwards of 30,000 bushels of 
grain and potatoes are, we learn, in store at St. Anthony and Minneapolis 
awaiting shipments, and as soon as any chance is seen for removal of this 
quantity, its place will immedately be filled with other thousands from 
up river and the back country.” 

By 1861 the quality of its wheat was bringing widespread recognition 
of Minnesota’s place in cereal production. Some milling had been done in 
St. Anthony, but in the first years it was not looked upon as a potentially 
important industry. As early as 1856 an editor thought it was "about time 
that we should stop importing the 'staff of life’ from the States below.” 
There was only one substantial mill in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Mill, 
which had been built by Eastman, Rollins and Upton on the lower end of 
Hennepin Island in 18S4. This enterprise was profitable enough to 
strengthen the conviction that no more flour should be imported, and in 
1858 it actually exported an experimental shipment of 125 barrels, fore¬ 
shadowing the huge trade which was to follow. 

By 1861 more mills were in operation, and Minneapolis and St. Anthony 
were prepared to ship 3,000 barrels of flour to St. Louis that season. The 
Civil War made the demand imperative, and brought about an increase 
in the farming areas, so that the supply of grain became more plentiful 
and dependable. Seven years later the Minneapolis mills were turning out 
3,000 barrels a day and railroads were running entire trainloads of flour 
and lumber from the city. 

The city was also becoming a center for other agricultural products. 
Two hundred and eighty teams hauling wood, hay and farm produce were 
reported crossing Bassett’s Creek into the city from the north and west on 
a single day in 1868, and it was thought that again as many arrived at 
Bridge Square from other directions. 

Another industry was introduced to St. Anthony and Minneapolis in 
the spring of 1861 when David Lewis, a weaver seeking a climate more 
healthful than his native Massachusetts, brought in the first elementary 
textile machinery. A double carding machine and a jack spinner were set 
up in a shop to do what was called "custom work.” Farmers brought wool 


here to be carded, after which their womenfolk would spin and weave it 
at home. The carding mill enjoyed a good business. 

The next year a Mr. Hilliard brought a loom and spinning machinery 
from Salisbury, Vermont. One box of the equipment was lost in transit 
and had to be replaced by makeshift parts made in a shop at Northfield. 
After great difficulty the machinery was put into operation. It was driven 
by waterpower and turned out about 60 yards of cloth per day, and it 
encouraged other establishments in the same field. 

Settlers from New England hoped that Minneapolis might sometime 
rival the great textile centers such as Lawrence and Lowell. Progress was 
made in that direction, too; in 186S, $100,000 worth of woolen and cot¬ 
ton fabrics were produced. 

In 1866 iron works, car and machine shops, three planing mills, a 
sash and door factory, one paper mill in operation and another about to 
be opened, furniture factories and other establishments which turned out 
"articles of luxury as well as of necessity,” already gave color to the claim 
of Minneapolis that she was to be Minnesota’s leading industrial city. 

It had already become apparent that it would be to the advantage of 
the two cities at the Falls to unite; for all practical purposes they were 
already one. Two city governments were being maintained, which was 
costly and inefficient. On March 18, 1866, a proposal to unite was sub¬ 
mitted to the voters and was defeated by the narrow margin of 85 votes. 
Minneapolis had been forging ahead so rapidly that it was apparent she 
would absorb her neighbor if they were made one, and St. Anthony was 
not ready to admit defeat. 

One of the dangers about which the early newspapers wrote con¬ 
tinually and ominously was fire. If lumber was the financial prop of the 
cities it was also their building material, for even the business district was 
constructed almost entirely of wood. These tinder-like buildings and the 
lack of fire equipment meant that a blaze might wipe out the entire set¬ 
tlement. One editor warned that four things were needed to guarantee the 
future of the city: "A good public schoolhouse; a strong lock up . . . 
a fireproof depositary for the records and documents of the Register’s 
office; and a steam fire engine.” His plea was unheeded. A jail was re¬ 
garded as "unnecessary expenditure of public funds” by sedate Minne¬ 
apolitans, and nothing was done in regard to fire protection. 

In consequence, on March 19, 1866, one-third of the business district 
was destroyed by fire, with a total loss of nearly a hundred thousand dol¬ 
lars. It had been a minor blaze at first, and with proper fire-fighting equip¬ 
ment the damage would have been small, but there was no fire engine and 
the little hand pump could not function in the sub-zero weather. The 
citizens were forced to stand by and see building after building catch fire 


[ 58 ] 


and go down. It was possible to rescue quantities of goods, but it seemed 
for a time as if all the buildings of the business district must go. Only 
through heroic effort and the setting of counter-fires was the blaze 
brought under control. Next day a newspaper reported that "sadness pre¬ 
vailed.” 

The sadness did not last very long. Now that the ugly early growth 
was cleared away, a better city soon rose from the ruins. Two hundred 
and fifty buildings were erected in the next month. Soon the "four re¬ 
quisites” for the future of the city were provided. It was later recorded 
that one of these, the county jail, was "a most complete and elegant stone 
structure.” 

Growth in the 1860’s might be measured by the fact that by 1867 
fifty-one lawyers had taken out licenses. A local paper recorded the fact 
under a headline noting that the country was "In An Awful State.” 

Traffic was already beginning to present a problem. A city ordinance 
provided that horses might not be driven over six miles an hour, but this 
law was often broken. One editor explained the temptation that faced 
drivers: "the sleighing is fine, horses 'feel their oats’ and it’s a natural desire 
to 'let them out’ . . .” Another impediment to progress and affront to 
civic pride was that livestock of every variety roamed freely over the 
streets, until a pound-master "gobbled a drove of them . . . and 'enclosed 
’em’,” teaching the owners a much needed lesson. 

A hall with impressive stage equipment was opened to the public in 1864 
at the corner of Washington and Nicollet. It was called Harrison’s Hall, 
and was used for entertainments and public meetings. One of the groups 
which used the Hall as a forum was the Liberal League, which was said 
to be "abhorred by the good church people.” 

Three years later the Pence Opera House was built, and in this build¬ 
ing Minneapolis received its full share of genuine theatre, with all the 
attendant trappings and glamour. To summon the crowd, a band played 
on an outside balcony. Performances were opened by a gentleman who 
came before the curtain (itself a remarkable work of art entitled The 
Vintage Festival) to ignite the footlights with a torch. Several short acts, 
then known as "curtain warmers,” usually preceded the main show. 

The people who had come to Minnesota from older and more civilized 
places were hungry for culture. This was shown from the first in their 
interest in schools and libraries, and now in their patronage of the theatre, 
which was so deep and widespread as to bring to the city the best of the 
drama of that time. In the 1880’s Sir Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Richard 
Mansfield, Sara Bernhardt, Lillian Russell, and other noted actors played 
here. It was remarked at the time that the people of Minneapolis could 


1*9] 


attend the "finest presentations of musical and dramatic offerings that 
it was possible to obtain in any city of the United States, New York not 
excepted.” 

The entire life of the city depended more or less upon the water power 
at the Falls, and panic almost ensued in 1869 when word spread that 
the Falls were going out. The excavation of a tunnel through an island 
to get a greater head of water for power had weakened the limestone 
ledge, and a section of it collapsed. The frantic people tried to stem the 
torrent by throwing logs, rock, brush, hay and rubbish into the break, 
but the force of the current was too strong for such measures. It was 
soon apparent that this was too vast a calamity to be handled locally, and 
Washington was petitioned to save the Falls. Engineers were sent out, 
and in 1870 over a million dollars was spent by the Federal Government 
in the construction of a concrete barrier to support the ledge and protect 
the river bed. When men working on the repairs who had been promised 
$2.50 a day were paid a lesser amount, the result was an unorganized 
strike. Labor, however, was plentiful, and most of the men returned to 
work on threat of losing their jobs to others. 

Minneapolis labor asserted itself again in the same year. Coopers who 
were engaged in making barrels for the shipments of flour went on strike, 
"demanding an extraordinary advance” from 18 to 25 cents per barrel. 
Some employers compromised immediately, granting a raise of two cents 
a barrel. Others were more obdurate, and it was at this time that millers 
began shipping flour in cloth sacks. 


[ 60 ] 


Mighty Kingdoms Will Emerge 

Minneapolis Reaches Maturity 

In 1866 Minneapolis’ boundaries had been enlarged to include St. 
Anthony, but only for certain specified purposes. Some functions of gov¬ 
ernment were combined, but the elder settlement yet retained its identity. 
St. Anthony was the older and better known of the two cities, and the 
early settlers had a great deal of local pride. Minneapolis, however, had 
the larger population, and it was this strength of numbers which event¬ 
ually resolved the deadlock, when on February 28, 1872, a legislative act 
consolidated the two cities under the name Minneapolis. The consolidation 
placed Minneapolis in a better position to compete with St. Paul for 
immigrants and trade. 

Scandinavians, so important later on, had played little part in the 
early history of Minneapolis. The first Swede to come, a shoemaker by 
the name of Nils Nyberg, arrived in St. Anthony in 18 51 and opened 
a small shop for the practice of his trade. The first Norwegian, Fredrika 
Bremer, the famous novelist, came to the settlement in 18 50, but merely 
for a visit; there were no actual Norwegian settlers until 18 54. As an 
unusual event, Mrs. Ard Godfrey recorded in her dairy in 1858: “April 
29—Seven Norwegians came to tea. April 30— . . . Norwegians left 
after dinner. May 5—Norwegians came to dinner again. May 6—They 
left [yesterday?] after dinner again.” 

Scandinavian immigration did not assume large proportions until the 
early 1860’s. Until that time the only considerable body of foreigners had 
been the French-Canadians. Thus the early affairs of the city and its com¬ 
merce were guided largely by settlers from the eastern states, for whom 
New England was both inspiration and pattern. The first influx of 
Scandinavians caused considerable alarm, but later they were recognized 
as solid and dependable citizens, and more and more, in proportion to 
their numerical strength, they assumed a leading place in the community. 

The language difficulty facing the newcomers created an educational 
problem which the city met, in the winter of 1871, by establishing a school 
in a basement, where a one-time Baptist minister instructed young 
Scandinavians in the English language. 

One of the favorite amusements of the seventies and early eighties was 
Bill King’s annual Fair at 27th Avenue South and 24th Street. Here 
there was a fine race track which brought to Minneapolis the famous 
trotting horses of the country, and a grandstand and four exhibition 


buildings, the whole surrounded by an eight-foot unpainted board fence. 
An imitation Minnehaha Falls "cleverly arranged with no pipes in view” 
drew large crowds, though the actual Falls were almost as easily acces¬ 
sible. The Fair, which was the only one in the State for a number of years, 
presented many attractions. One visitor reported that "President Hayes 
was there during his administration and so were Hopeful and Rarus, lead¬ 
ing trotters of the day.” 

From the Civil War to the early 1870’s the foundations of the great 
railway systems were laid, the cities were consolidated, and industry was 
stabilized. The "Jay Cooke” panic of 1873 marked the conclusion of an 
era of "frenzied finance.” This panic was almost as widespread as the one 
in 1857 and had similar effects on Minneapolis. However, the country 
was not as long recovering from it. Recovery brought with it a period of 
the most rapid development in population, industry, business and civic 
improvement. 

A street railway line was built in 1875, extending from Fourth Avenue 
North down to Hennepin and then across the bridge. The horse-drawn 
cars provided a small coupe in front for the driver, heated by a small 
stove that threw a minimum of heat to the passengers in the rear. The 
lines were extended and the company reorganized, with Thomas Lowry, 
who eventually obtained control, as attorney. Electric cars were first put 
in operation in 1889, overcoming many difficulties which had made the 
horse cars a trial to patience and temper. Before the innovation of electric 
cars, extra horses had to be maintained at the foot of steep hills, to aid 
the regular Dobbin. 

None of the city streets were paved until 1878. The winter of that 
year was warm, and streets became rivers of sticky mud. One street car 
actually stood stranded and deserted for several months in a swampy place 
between Sixth and Eighth Avenues. Out of the experience of that season 
grew an insistent public demand for paved streets for the preservation of 
both temper and civic dignity. 

Introduction of each new invention or device brought difficulties for 
the innovators. The telegraph, illuminating gas, the telephone, and later, 
electricity, each so vitally to affect the future of the community, were at 
first extremely restricted luxuries, and had to overcome many prejudices 
before they met with acceptance. 

The telephone was introduced in June 1877, when a line was installed 
from the Hankinson residence, at Sixth Avenue North and Bradford, to 
the City Hall. The first test was made by the lady of the house singing 
hymns to her husband at the city hall, and it was remarked that the device 
"worked very satisfactorily if the party at the other end was quite familiar 
with the tunes.” 


[ 62 ] 


Later a line was put up from the offices of Loring and Fletcher to 
their mill at Minnetonka Mills, a distance of fifteen miles. Materials were 
makeshift; the experiment was hardly a success. Mr. Fletcher was con¬ 
stantly annoyed by weird noises on the wire, ranging from “the croaking 
of frogs, rustling of leaves and barking of dogs to the cry of the banshee.” 
He ordered the telephone company to eliminate these noises, but was in¬ 
formed that his mill was so located that this could not be done. This 
answer only infuriated Mr. Fletcher, who retorted that the mill would not 
be moved for any telephone and that unless the company “constructed 
their line of something besides old hay wire they could take it down.” In 
the next year, the difficulties having been conquered, the Northwestern 
Telephone Company was organized and a small exchange was established 
in the old City Hall. 

Minneapolis was fortunate to be building itself and its industries dur¬ 
ing the golden age of invention, so that it need not pass through the 
tedious and costly process of complete rebuilding when new methods and 
machines made their appearance. And if natural development did not pro¬ 
vide for this, fate sometimes stepped in to clear the stage for the next 
improvement. 

On May 2, 1878, a disaster in the flour industry made way for revolu¬ 
tionary changes in the milling process, which had remained substantially 
unchanged for centuries. Late on this cloudless day the city was shaken 
by a terrific explosion. It was some time before the stunned citizens re¬ 
ceived the news that “the Mills have blown up.” A rain of shingles fell 
over the city and firebrands were carried as far as a mile away from the 
explosion and resulting fire. South Minneapolis lay in the direction of the 
wind, and the spread of fire from the burning fragments had to be pre¬ 
vented by chains of men carrying water to the roofs of threatened build¬ 
ings. For three hours the perilous rain of debris and sparks continued, and 
despite all efforts to save them, a number of dwellings were destroyed. 

The explosion took place in the Washburn A Mill, and the flames 
spread until five smaller mills, a factory, a machine shop and a roundhouse 
were destroyed. The cause of the explosion was never definitely determined, 
but later investigators believed that it was the result of ignition of flour 
dust. Eighteen men were killed in this disaster. By this time the flour 
industry had too much vitality to be greatly retarded by the calamity, and 
plans for rebuilding were immediately made. 

The hard, red spring wheat of the plains states, Minnesota, North and 
South Dakota and Montana, had, until this date, been at a disadvantage 
in competition with the soft winter wheat of the East and South. There 
was a great deal of waste in milling, and the dark color of the flour, even 
though its food value was higher, led people to believe it inferior. Before 
the explosion, an improvement in milling had already been introduced in 


[ 63 ] 


the form of a middlings purifier, the invention of Edmund N. La Croix, 
a French immigrant. This invention saved much of the grain formerly 
dumped into the river as middlings and wastage, but the dust raised by this 
process was thought to be responsible for the explosions. The new mills 
were built with facilities for eliminating the dangerous condition. 

In some of these new mills a process was inaugurated which involved 
a basic change in milling practice. The milling process, from primitive 
times up to that day, had consisted of grinding the grain between the 
surfaces of two mill stones. By the new method, the grain was passed 
through a set of rollers which gradually reduced it to a fine flour, per¬ 
mitting the elimination, without waste, of the outer layers of the kernel. 
It is these that contain the darkening pigment. By this process, the 
amount of saleable flour produced from a bushel of grain was increased 
from 25 to 90 per cent. 

The flour which could now be milled from spring wheat was of such 
quality that it soon captured the markets of the world. Flour was shipped 
from Minneapolis in increasing quantities, and the capital needed to re¬ 
build and enlarge the mills was readily available. Giant elevators and mills 
soon began rising in Minneapolis, tokens of its growing supremacy in 
flour. 

The growth of the mills brought more and more wheat to the city, 
taxing all storage facilities beyond capacity. In 1879 there were elevators 
for storing about ten million bushels, but this one year brought ten times 
that quantity rolling in from the prairie. Great elevators had to be built, 
and these transformed the skyline of the city. At first the grain trade was 
almost completely controlled by the milling interests, but as the demand 
for northwest wheat increased, the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce 
was organized, in 1882, to carry on that trade. 

Since the beginning of the railway era, certain men had been interested 
in a northern route to the Pacific which would pass through Minnesota. 
In the East, Minnesota and the Dakotas had been extravagantly advertised 
as having a mild, warm climate, and when the projected trans-continental 
northern route was outlined, it was derided as "Jay Gould’s Banana Belt.” 
Progress on this railway was inexplicably slow, and when the work threat¬ 
ened to go completely under, financial reverses forced a sweeping reorgan¬ 
ization of the company. Eventually, in November 1883, the Northern 
Pacific was completed. Since it meant a vast new extension of trade for 
Minneapolis, it was greeted with rejoicing. Henry Villard, president of the 
line, was met as he passed through the city by a mammoth parade headed 
by a huge model of a flour mill, symbol of Minneapolis prosperity. 

Unlike most frontier settlements and boom towns, early Minneapolis 
had been characterized by staidness and respectability. The New Eng¬ 
landers who dominated the life of the city preached, and practiced, a high 


[ 64 ] 


moral standard. It was hard for them to understand the gayety and rough¬ 
ness of the men who came later: the lumberjacks, the foreigners, people 
who sought relief from the daily monotony of life. 

On the western side of Minneapolis, Kegan Lake, where the West- 
phal Brewery had been built, became, in the Eighties, a popular resort. 
It lay outside the restrictions of the city, and high carnival was held there 
on warm Sunday afternoons. There was a small park around the brewery, 
and near it was a dance hall and bar where, it was reported with shocked 
disgust, "prize fights were often pulled off.” As the city spread out, it 
absorbed this area, the gay scenes disappeared, and the brewery closed 
down. 

Minneapolis, growing in industrial importance, felt the need for an 
Exposition which would acquaint the public at large with the diversity 
and importance of its products. The outdoor fairs were devoted almost 
exclusively to agriculture, and most of them had not been successful. A 
movement for the construction of an Industrial Exposition Building was 
initiated in September 188 5, and business, civic and labor groups par¬ 
ticipated in a drive to finance such a project. The site of the old Winslow 
House was chosen; and the building, which had been closed, re-opened 
as Macalester College, and now again stood empty, was torn down to give 
way to the new structure. On August 23, 1886, Mrs. Grover Cleveland 
opened the building by remote control from upper Saranac Lake, where 
she and the President were vacationing. Despite great expectations, how¬ 
ever, the Exposition operated at a consistent loss, its sponsors were forced 
to withdraw, and it closed in 1891. 

The next year, however, the city felt that it had received the crown 
of national acclaim when the Republicans decided upon it as their national 
convention city. This not only meant thousands of dollars in additional 
trade from convention visitors; it also meant that people from the most 
remote sections of the nation would be made aware of the possibilities of 
Minneapolis. 

That convention, in June of 1892, brought the largest influx of 
visitors that the city had ever seen. The new West Hotel, which had 
already won distinction, was thronged with important looking men. 
Crowds of people waited on the streets to catch a glimpse of national 
Republican leaders such as the rising young Governor of Ohio, William 
McKinley. 

On the eve of the convention a public meeting was held to dedicate 
the redecorated Exposition building, which had been fitted up as an audi¬ 
torium. The great hall was impressive in blue and gold, climaxed by a 
skylight of "soft blue studded with stars of white.” The dedicatory pro¬ 
gram, which featured the appearance of a thousand-voiced chorus and the 


[ 65 ] 


"golden tongued” Chauncey Depew, packed the place with a richly dressed 
crowd which inspired one newspaper to report that "no far famed vale 
of Vallambrosa was more thickly strewn with autumn leaves than the 
. . . hall was gemmed last night with the fairest and bravest of the coun¬ 
try. All other occasions in the history of this city pall into insignificance.” 
Perhaps the reporter erred on the side of enthusiasm, but the event did 
have one lasting influence in that it made the city convention-minded. 

Labor had grown more and more aggressive since the organization of 
the first actual trade union by the printers in 1859. In 1889 the first 
large-scale organized strike occurred, when the streetcar workers walked 
out on April 11, following the posting of a notice by Mr. Lowry, head of 
the street transportation company, to the effect that wages would be re¬ 
duced to IS and 17 cents per hour. He also had demanded that all men 
employed by him sign an "iron clad,” a written promise to stay out of 
labor organizations on pain of discharge. The public, although much 
inconvenienced, supported the action of workers. Some violence resulted 
when an attempt was made to run the cars with men brought in from 
other cities. The strike was finally settled with a partial compromise, after 
a long period in which the management refused to arbitrate. 

After the consolidation of St. Anthony and Minneapolis, St. Paul had 
but one rival, and that a greatly strengthened one. Consequently the 
bitter wrangling between the cities broke out anew. The newspapers, par¬ 
ticularly, were continually fanning the flames of discord. A St. Paul editor 
would refer to Minneapolis building reports as "fictitious,” and in retalia¬ 
tion Minneapolitans would be warned that "strangers coming to St. Paul 
are particularly cautioned to avoid that part of the city where sidewalks 
are usually found. They have been torn up about every twenty yards to 
give the city a business look and prevent strangers from thinking that 
the town is finished and fenced in.” 

As Minneapolis’ population figures soared nearer and nearer the mark 
set by St. Paul (no one knew just when Minneapolis passed her sister city), 
there was constant bickering on the question of population. Every census 
brought renewed and vociferous mutual charges of "puffing” and "pad¬ 
ding” figures. The census of 1880 revealed that Minneapolis had overtaken 
St. Paul, even though that city had, according to Minneapolitans, "in¬ 
vented new and novel ways of securing names on a comprehensive scale.” 
Minneapolis excused its own errors by claiming that in "rapidly growing 
America, especially in the hustling, bustling western states, many 
anomalies necessarily appear.” St. Paul then attempted to minimize the 
more rapid growth of Minneapolis by talk of the two cities being equal, 
which antagonistic persons characterized as a "ridiculous attempt” to do 
the "twin sister act.” 

The census of 1890 brought the dispute to a climax. Minneapolis 


[ 66 ] 


enumerators were working late on the evening of June 17 when a U. S. 
Deputy Marshall arrived, arrested seven on charges of fraud and confiscated 
the census tabulations. Indignant Minneapolis citizens rushed a train to 
St. Paul with bail funds and succeeded in getting the prisoners released. 
Next day Minneapolis papers declared in bold face that "IT MEANS 
WAR,” and leading citizens voiced angry threats. Mayor W. H. Eustis 
was sent with a party of citizens to reclaim the records, and was repulsed 
by policemen with drawn revolvers who were said to have kicked the good 
mayor "at least sixteen feet.” 

This was too much, and Minneapolis began to demand the removal of 
the capitol from St. Paul. St. Paul then became indignant, and publicly 
regretted its forced connection with a city "that stands degraded and 
ashamed in the eyes of the nation.” Investigators found the whole census 
a frightful tangle and a new one was taken. An honest count revealed that 
neither city had clean hands; in Minneapolis the dead had been enrolled 
in the interest of civic pride, while St. Paul’s standing had been defended 
by hundreds of inhabitants who evidently lived in depots, barber shops 
and dime museums. Minneapolis, though proven the more adept at padding 
figures, was also found to have won by a safe margin, 164,738 to 133,156. 
This lead has since been maintained and increased. 

Shortly following this triumph, however, business began to slow down, 
and in the 1893 panic which swept the nation, Minneapolis’ boasted 38 
millionaires were considerably reduced in number, and there was genuine 
poverty among the working people. It was several years before any real 
recovery was apparent. 

When it came, lumber production was still increasing at an amazing 
rate, although men had begun to notice a thinning of the supposedly 
boundless forests. The zenith of the lumber industry was reached in 1899, 
with a production of 594 million feet. This was the last big haul. The 
industry began then to move westward to a source of greater supply, the 
forests of the Pacific slope. In 1900, Minneapolis was still one of the 
nation’s chief lumber centers, but the years following were marked by 
decline. From 1910 production figures plunged downward like a spent 
rocket, and in 1919 with the closing of the last mill, the first great in¬ 
dustry of the city passed out of existence. Lumber had performed its role, 
furnishing the impetus and the capital from which arose new industries 
and occupations. 

It may have been a portent that the first permanent settler in Minne¬ 
apolis proper was a farmer. The military men, the grasping, rapacious 
Indian traders, the speculators, all looked with disdain on the efforts of 
humble men who sought to wring their living from the land. Yet it was 
hard labor on the land which, in the end, provided the real economic 
foundation of the Northwest. 


[ 67 ] 


Agriculture, and the industries based upon it, moved steadily forward. 
The decade of 1870 to 1880 brought a rapid increase in the amount of 
wheat grown in the trade territory. This wheat flowed towards Minne¬ 
apolis and in a short time made the city one of the most important pri¬ 
mary wheat markets. By 188S Minneapolis led the world in flour pro¬ 
duction. 

Around the flour mills new industries developed, and the network of 
commerce which connected Minneapolis with the farm country of the 
Northwest strengthened. Grain companies, naturally centering their activ¬ 
ities in Minneapolis, began to extend chains of elevators to the little sid¬ 
ings on the prairies where farmers delivered their grain, and of course, 
as the farm economy of the Northwest came to center ever more directly 
in Minneapolis, it had to follow that the surrounding region found itself 
depending more and more upon that city to supply its financial needs and 
banking facilities. 

Wheat, because of the ease with which it was stored and shipped, was 
the favorite crop of Northwest farmers. As storage and transportation 
facilities improved, however, they began to raise other grains. Quantities 
of oats and corn were being sent to Minneapolis before 1890. Nineteen 
hundred saw Minneapolis established as one of the country’s leading flax 
markets, and by 1905 it was a major market for barley and rye. Chicago 
remained the largest all-grain market, but Minneapolis was at times a 
potentially dangerous rival. 

Jobbing and wholesaling soon felt the influence of this growing trade 
in grain. In a period of ten years, between 1880 and 1890, Minneapolis, 
climbing in spectacular leaps, overtook and surpassed the once command¬ 
ing lead which St. Paul had enjoyed as a jobbing center. Successive panics 
produced temporary setbacks, but the general trend was sharply upward, 
until by 1919 Minneapolis was able to call herself the "billion dollar mar¬ 
ket.” Nor was it just an idle, vainglorious claim; concrete evidence of its 
truth was to be seen in the rush of large eastern wholesalers to set up 
branches in the new trade center. 

The city in this period also became prominent as a labor market. Skilled 
building tradesmen, lumberjacks, and railroad workers were among the 
early labor needs supplied. Minneapolis was peculiarly suited for this serv¬ 
ice—there was lumbering and mining to the north, railroads were reach¬ 
ing out in all directions, and farmers to the south and west were demand¬ 
ing helpers. By the early 1920’s the supplying of labor to surrounding 
areas and states had become an important function of the city. 

After the turn of the century, Minneapolis entered decisively into the 
financial stage of its development. The area over which it began to exer¬ 
cise financial control was substantially the same as that it had served in 


[ 68 ] 


marketing and manufacturing. The wealth of the entire region tended to 
concentrate in the city, so that its stake in agriculture was even greater 
than it had been when the city was dependent upon the farms merely for 
supplies. 

Organization in 1914 of the Ninth Federal Reserve District, with 
headquarters in Minneapolis, and embracing Montana, North Dakota, 
South Dakota, Minnesota, the northern peninsula of Michigan and the 
northern two-thirds of Wisconsin, merely marked the official recognition 
of an already established fact. For some years, the city had been dominant 
in Northwest finance. It was designated as reserve district headquarters 
after Minneapolis business groups had organized and presented conclusive 
proof of the city’s financial leadership to the Reserve Bank Organization 
Committee. 

Since those days, of course, drastic changes have taken place in the 
banking structure of the Northwest. At one time there were 3,782 banks 
in the Ninth Federal Reserve District. By 1927, bank casualties resulting 
in the main from depressed agricultural prices had reduced the number 
to 2,613; in mid-1939, only 1,312 of these were still in operation. These 
figures, if taken by themselves, would seem to indicate a sharp decline in 
the banking resources of this area, with a proportionate reduction in the 
financial influence that centers in Minneapolis. Such, however, is not the 
case. 

Two factors account for the reduction in number of banks. The rising 
curve of bank failures from early in the twenties until the bank holiday 
was proclaimed in 1933 does represent an actual crippling of the region’s 
financial structure. The other factor accounting for the decrease in num¬ 
ber of banks is a long series of mergers and consolidations which actually 
brought new strength to the general structure. This is illustrated graphi¬ 
cally in the fact that the 2,613 banks operating in the Minneapolis district 
in 1927 had approximately 1,700 million dollars in total deposits, while in 
1939, although the number of banks had then dropped to 1,312 the 
deposit total still stood at 1,429 millions. 

This tendency toward centralization of banking control was espe¬ 
cially apparent in Minneapolis itself. In the early 1920’s some of the 
younger bankers decided it would promote financial stability to gather the 
strong outlying banks together into a central corporation. This developed 
into the group banking system, of which Minneapolis is still a leading 
exponent. Two large group systems now have headquarters in Minne¬ 
apolis, one of which concentrates the resources of 80 banks and three 
branches, the other of 85 banks and 21 branches or offices. By 1937 annual 
bank clearings in Minneapolis were more than three billion dollars, while 
at the beginning of 1940, total deposits in the city’s banks touched the 
all-time peak of $402,909,000. By reason of its growing financial power, 


[ 69 ] 


the city is in a sense no longer dependent on but dominant over the 
surrounding region. 

World War prices brought unprecedented prosperity to agriculture, 
and millions of acres of previously unused land were placed under the 
plow. Europe hungered for wheat, and more and more of it passed 
through the Minneapolis terminal. When the war ended and Europe re¬ 
turned to production, world markets were soon glutted. The ensuing sharp 
decline in export trade struck Minneapolis the first of a series of blows. 

The official opening of the Panama Canal on July 12, 1920,* marked 
the beginning of a new adversity. East-west transcontinental shipping 
was seriously curtailed, and this reduced the importance of Minneapolis 
as a central point in cross-country shipping. 

In addition to these reverses, the flour and grain market of Minne¬ 
apolis suffered from an Interstate Commerce Commission ruling on freight 
rates, of February 14, 1922, to the effect that "water competition on the 
Upper Mississippi, north of St. Louis, is no longer recognized as a controll¬ 
ing force, but is little more than potential.” This decision greatly increased 
the freight rates of the area, so that annual average grain receipts at 
Minneapolis suffered a drop of over 25 million bushels, while flour produc¬ 
tion declined to less than eight million barrels yearly. 

In 1925 it was still said that "the city’s position as chief flour-produc¬ 
ing center has not been seriously threatened by any other city in the 
country.” However, since it was cheaper to ship wheat than flour, milling 
centers began to grow up in other sections of the country, either closer 
to the source of supply or in places not affected by adverse freight rates. 
Like the lumber barons before them, the milling interests simply trans¬ 
ferred their activities. Minneapolis money still controls 85 per cent of 
Buffalo milling, 25 per cent in Kansas City, and many mills elsewhere. 
Buffalo, since 1929, has surpassed Minneapolis in flour production by 
nearly two million barrels per year. 

Despite these setbacks the twenties were a fantastically opulent decade. 
The old families, the New Englanders who had made fortunes in lumber 
and flour and grain, were now able to sit back and enjoy their imperial 
city. Minneapolis began for the first time to display its wealth. The 
wealthy families, taking advantage of the new mobility of the automobile 
age, moved towards the edge of the city on Lake Harriet and Lake of the 
Isles or even outside the city to Lake Minnetonka. Nicollet Avenue became 
one of the finest shopping districts in the country. A new generation in 
the city’s business life outlined structures and projects which would imbed 

* The Panama Canal was opened to allow the steamer Ancon passage on August 15, 
1914 and was formally opened by President Theodore Roosevelt on July 12, 1915. Traffic 
in the early years was hampered by slides and reduced by war conditions. It was officially 
opened five years after its formal opening. 


[ 70 ] 


their names as securely in the future city as the milling and lumber men 
had done before them. 

In 1927 the three million dollar Municipal Auditorium was com¬ 
pleted, work was begun on the Foshay Tower and the Sears, Roebuck 
plant. That single year saw building permits issued for a total of 22 mil¬ 
lion dollars worth of construction. Twenty-five new industries found a 
place in the city during the year. It was confidently expected that build¬ 
ing in 1928 would exceed 25 million dollars in cost. The Calhoun Beach 
Club, still uncompleted in 1940, was then under construction, and a new 
advance in industry was anticipated. 

Minneapolis failed to notice the exact point at which it outgrew the 
Northwest. There was always a surplus of jobless men on the Minneapolis 
market, and cheap labor became the accepted standard. This cheap labor 
attracted new industries, metal, linseed oil, clothing and knitting. These 
additions compensated for the decline in flour production. Expansion was 
the accepted creed of the day. 

Diversification proved to be a temporary answer to the industrial prob¬ 
lems of the city. Whereas in 1868 the important industries were lumber, 
flour, iron and metal products, wood products and woolen goods, by 1929 
.the list had already come to include mill products, printing and publish¬ 
ing, foundry products, bread and bakery goods, rail car construction and 
repair, prepared animal feeds, electrical equipment, furniture, butter, cof¬ 
fee and spices. The decline of wheat led to a similar diversification in agri¬ 
culture, and as a result Minneapolis assumed importance as a poultry and 
dairy center. 

The height of postwar prosperity was reached in 1927, and the new 
buildings that were rising high over the business district were symbols of 
this grandiose epoch. Most striking of these was the obelisk-like Foshay 
Tower, inspired by the Washington Monument. It was said at the time 
of its completion that: "Paris has its Eiffel Tower and the Louvre; London, 
Westminster Abbey; New York, the Statue of Liberty; Washington, the 
White House; and now Minneapolis has the Foshay Tower. . . It is 
possible because Mr. Foshay had faith in the future of Minneapolis and 
the Northwest and because he had the fortitude and daring and vision to 
use that faith.” 

A few years later, the era of "faith” had come to an end, the Foshay 
utilities scheme, with many others of its kind, lay in ruins, and Minne¬ 
apolis was feeling the overwhelming panic which followed the crisis of 
1929. Unemployment soon reached new heights, and as it rose the labor 
problem grew more acute. 

The distance traveled in those catastrophic years might be gauged 
by the span from the magnificence of the Foshay Tower to the woe- 


[ 71 ] 


begone misery of Bridge Square. The Square, once the most prosperous 
business section of Minneapolis, now a tumbledown collection of cheap 
movie houses, penny restaurants, squalid “flop joints,” penny arcades and 
pawnshops, revealed the problem clearly, for it was and is peopled by 
Minnesota’s past. Each industry that has declined, or come to an end, 
left behind a share of despondent human backwash. The Square had once 
been a labor market for the farms and pineries; now, its only product 
unwanted, it became a place of idle men and aimless despair. 

Wilbur Foshay’s fall had been a shock to Minneapolis, but it was not 
as severe as that which resulted from the collapse of the Backus fortune, 
rooted in lumber and paper. E. W. Backus was one of the old, well estab¬ 
lished generation of eastern origin whose history is inextricably woven 
into that of the city. His bankruptcy in 1931 shook the city and ended 
an era. 

The new era opened rather unpropitiously with the truck drivers’ 
strike of May 1934. Minneapolis was still a cheap labor area, but the 
rising cost of living turned employed workers more and more to self- 
organization as an answer to their problems. The truck drivers’ strike was 
successful, and as a result unionization of Minneapolis labor spread rapidly 
and with less opposition. This strike forced Minneapolis to consider her 
industrial problems realistically. 

The immediate problems were partially alleviated by the reform policies 
of the Roosevelt Administration. Various relief methods were tried, among 
them the Works Progress Administration (now the Work Projects Admin¬ 
istration) for the purpose of making public improvements and rendering 
public service through use and preservation of the skills possessed by the 
unemployed. 

Present day Minneapolis is less ebullient than it was during the day of 
the “booster” in the twenties; yet it is optimistic. Today’s realism finds 
new reasons to be hopeful for the future of Minneapolis and the North¬ 
west. 

There is considerable hope that the “potential” of river traffic will be 
revived and thus bring about a lowering of unfavorable railroad rates. 
The renewed effort to revive river traffic was opened by the arrival of the 
first modern tow boat on August 25 , 1927. It may be that the future 
outlet for a share of the Northwest’s agricultural products will be down 
the Mississippi to southern ports and perhaps to Latin America. 

The financial crisis, although severe, did not strike the city with the 
deadening force which it exerted in some sections of the country. It was 
cushioned and delayed by the fact that diversification had already entered 
the farming and industrial picture in this area. Progress towards recovery 
was more rapid for the same reason. The city’s interest in agriculture 


[ 72 ] 


provided a stable base for both industry and finance. The high percentage 
of home owners found in Minneapolis testifies to this stability. 

Industry is contriving through constant diversification to fit itself 
ever more closely to the supply and employment needs of the area. The 
number of manufacturing establishments increased from 923 in 1933 to 
1,100 in 1939. The three largest manufacturing firms make agricultural 
implements, thermostats for heating apparatus, and underwear. 

Culturally the city is in an enviable position. Its institutional frame¬ 
work, erected upon the foundations so soundly laid by the early settlers, 
are of the nature and scope which may be expected to provide the finest 
and most varied cultural opportunities. It is significant that the past 
decade has witnessed a broadening of the appreciation and enjoyment of 
these facilities. Modern wealth travels and can afford to seek education 
and enjoyment in the largest metropolitan centers. Consequently its sup¬ 
port of civic culture, in some cases, has declined. The result, surely not an 
unhappy one, has been to broaden the basis of support for and participa¬ 
tion in cultural institutions among all groups of people, rather than leave 
the burden of support entirely to a wealthy few. 

Most Minneapolitans express pride in the local educational system, the 
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the city’s position as an art center. 
Facts more than justify this pride. The origins of the Minneapolis Sym¬ 
phony extend deep into the city’s past. As far back as 1866 a visiting 
composer remarked that he found "voices remarkably clear, pure and 
healthy . . . the pure, dry, invigorating climate of your state cannot but 
be favorable to vocal development . . . Instrumental musical talent is 
also well represented, and is evidently encouraged here. ...” During the 
same year a local newspaper speculated on the city’s musical future; 
"Who knows but in time we may have an opera established here. Stranger 
things have happened.” 

Minneapolis didn’t get an opera, but its symphony orchestra has an 
international reputation. The orchestra, a genuinely civic product, grew 
logically out of the small orchestras of the early days, the Danz Orchestra 
of the eighties and the Philharmonix of the nineties, and has been in con¬ 
tinuous existence since that time. To the first conductor, Emil Oberhoffer, 
must go primary credit for the stable orchestra organization. Henri 
Verbrugghen became conductor in 1922, and Eugene Ormandy, now co¬ 
conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, succeeded him in 
1931. Dimitri Mitropolous, the present conductor, succeeded Ormandy in 
1936. The artistic growth of the organization has been consistent and 
recently has encouraged the development of Minnesota composers, notably 
John Verrall. 

The Walker Art Galleries, containing the collected paintings, ceramics 
and jade of the millionaire lumberman, T. B. Walker, was re-opened in 


[ 73 ] 


January 1940, as the Walker Art Center. Under the sponsorship of the 
Minnesota Arts Council and with the cooperation of the Minnesota Art 
Project, Work Projects Administration, the new center is expected to 
increase popular enjoyment and participation in the arts. The Minneapolis 
Institute of Art, also known for its outstanding collection of ceramics and 
jade, continues to play an outstanding role in extending art appreciation. 
The Institute has a professional art school which enjoys a high rating. 

The University of Minnesota, located in Minneapolis, is second in the 
United States in number of students enrolled. The University takes more 
pride, however, in the high academic standing of its component schools 
and colleges than in its size, although the total enrollment does indicate 
the intense desire for higher education which is found in Minneapolis 
and Minnesota. 

The comprehensive system of public instruction, under the direction 
of the Minneapolis Board of Education, includes six senior high schools, 
three junior-senior high schools, 13 junior high scools, one boys’ voca¬ 
tional school, one girls’ vocational school, 88 grade schools and two spe¬ 
cial schools and special classes for deaf students. Wise and careful man¬ 
agement has kept Minneapolis schools open even during the worst years 
of the depression. 

The completion of the first hundred years of Minneapolis progress was 
celebrated in October 1939. The new century holds many problems. 
Although the city yet dominates the Northwest’s agricultural empire, it 
faces a period of readjustment to a changing world. Rival social forces 
active within its population challenge each other for leadership—each hop¬ 
ing to control and guide the future destiny of the city. 

Conflicts such as this are not peculiar to Minneapolis; they exist today 
in all large population centers. The careful student of Minneapolis history 
can view them calmly and without foreboding, for he knows what the 
city has done in the past. He knows it has faced, in its first hundred years, 
many other situations which at the time seemed equally as difficult. He 
knows that these problems have always been met full face, with daring 
and ingenuity, and that a stronger, more closely knit community has 
emerged out of the conflict. So long as that spirit endures, recurrent prob¬ 
lems will be solved, and Minneapolis will continue to thrive. 


[ 74 ] 



OLD FORT SNELLING, ABOUT 1845 


MINNEAPOLIS IN 1940 






























STEAMBOAT MINNEAPOLIS, 1869 


FIRST SUSPENSION BRIDGE 

ija flj Slt J t SL ue, t&ttjMUSgH 81 









ST. ANTHONY AND MINNEAPOLIS IN 1857 


HENNEPIN AVENUE IN 1869 














ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC RAILWAY DEPOT, 1874 


THE FIRST REAL ESTATE OFFICE, ABOUT 1855 



'l J)EALtRS\\^ 

rial estate 














A HOME IN THE SEVENTIES 


OLD MAIN, UNIVERSITY OP MINNESOTA. ABOUT 188C 





























-JiS&E&iarW, 


Wmmt 




Bk i N s 


NI COLLET 


THE NICOLLET HOUSE IN THE SEVENTIES 


REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, 1892 































AT THE CITY MARKET, 1900 


STREET SCENE, 1890 









Notes on Illustrations 

OLD FORT SNELLING, ABOUT 1845 

Reproduced from the painting by Seth Eastman, commandant at Fort 
Snelling during parts of the period 1841-48, who painted a number of 
pictures of Minnesota in romantic style. The picture is here reproduced 
through the courtesy of Julius FL Weitzner, Inc., 36 East 57th St., New 
York City. 

MINNEAPOLIS IN 1940 

Skyline of the city’s business district from Loring Park. Photograph 
by Norton & Peel. Courtesy of the Minneapolis Civic & Commerce Asso¬ 
ciation. 

OLD GOVERNMENT FLOUR MILL 

This photograph of the Government Flour Mill erected on the banks 
of the Mississippi in 1822 was taken in 1857, and published by Edward 
Augustus Bromley (1848-1925) from the original Benjamin Franklin 
Upton negatives. To Upton, frontier photographer who left Minneapolis 
in the 70’s to live in Florida, and Bromley, photographer and collector, 
the city is indebted for many of the pictures that document its history. 
‘Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. 

MINNEHAHA FALLS IN 1867 

This picture by an unknown photographer is dated 1867. Courtesy 
of the Minneapolis Public Library. 

STEAMBOAT Minneapolis, 1869 

The Washington Avenue bridge is on the site of the landing where 
this riverboat is drawn up. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of the Min¬ 
neapolis Public Library. 

FIRST SUSPENSION BRIDGE 

Date of this photograph, possibly by Upton, is uncertain. The first 
suspension bridge was opened July 4, 18 55, and replaced in 1875. Cour¬ 
tesy of the Minneapolis Public Library. 

ST. ANTHONY AND MINNEAPOLIS IN 1857 

This photograph, taken from the roof of the Winslow House, is No. 5 
of a series of eight pictures published by Bromley from the original Upton 
negatives. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. 

HENNEPIN AVENUE IN 1869 

Hennepin Avenue from Washington Avenue towards the river, and 
the Pence Opera House. Sweet-Jacoby negative. Courtesy of the Min¬ 
nesota Historical Society. 


[ 83 ] 


ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC RAILWAY DEPOT, 1874 
The passenger and freight depot, the photograph of which is dated 
1874, was located at Washington Avenue and Fourth Avenue North. 
Photographer unknown. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. 

THE FIRST REAL ESTATE OFFICE, ABOUT 18 56 
This picture is said to have been taken by Upton in 1856. Snyder and 
McFarlane’s real estate and banking office is supposed to have been the 
first real estate office opened (185 5) "on north side of Bridge Square near 
old Suspension bridge” in Minneapolis. The men in the picture have been 
identified as, left to right: Dr. Gilbert, S. P. Snyder, (unknown), J. G. 
McFarlane, Wm. McFarlane, and W. P. Ankeny. Courtesy of the Minne¬ 
sota Historical Society. 

A HOME IN THE SEVENTIES 

This particular home is "Guilford Place, Residence of R. J. Menden¬ 
hall,” a broker; the house was located on Nicollet avenue at about 18th 
street. Homes of this type were not uncommon when land and lumber 
were cheaper than they are today. The original picture appeared in Illus¬ 
trated Historical Atlas of the State of Minnesota, published in 1874, by 
A. T. Andreas, Chicago. Courtesy of the Minneapolis Public Library. 

OLD MAIN, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, ABOUT 1886 
The original picture appeared in a souvenir Minneapolis Album, a book 
of pictures "Published and Copyrighted, 1886, by Adolph Willemann, 
25 Park Place, New York,” and printed in Leipzig, Germany. Courtesy of 
the Minnesota Historical Society. 

THE NICOLLET HOUSE IN THE SEVENTIES 
The original picture appeared in Illustrated Historical Atlas of the 
State of Minnesota. Courtesy of the Minneapolis Public Library. 

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, 1892 
This picture of the famous convention held in the old Exposition 
Building, during June, 1892, is reproduced from a drawing "by F. V. 
Dumond after a sketch by T. Dart Walker,” which appeared in Harper’s 
Weekly, June 18, 1892. Courtesy of Harper and Brothers. 

AT THE CITY MARKET, 1900 
The photographer of this appealing scene is unknown. Courtesy of the 
Minneapolis Public Library. 

STREET SCENE, 1890 

This photograph from the E. A. Bromley collection is labeled: "Old 
Market House, First St. No. and Hennepin Ave. 1890—Bridge Square 
Gale’s Corner.” The policeman has been identified as Capt. Qualey, and 
the man next to him as Harlow A. Gale. Courtesy of the Minneapolis Pub¬ 
lic Library. 


[ 84 ] 


Suggested Reading 


EARLY EXPLORATION 

Folwell, William W., A History of Minnesota, Vol. I, Minnesota Histori¬ 
cal Society, St. Paul, 1921. 

FORT SNELLING 

Hansen, Marcus L., Old Fort Snelling, 1819-1858, State Historical Society 
of Iowa, Iowa City, 1918. 

ST. ANTHONY AND EARLY MINNEAPOLIS 
Atwater, Isaac, History of the City of Minneapolis, Munsell and Co., New 
York, 1893. 

Leonard, Dr. William E., "Early Days in Minneapolis,” Minnesota His¬ 
torical Collections, Vol. 15, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 
1915. 

Stevens, John H., Recollections of Minnesota and Its People, Tribune Job 
Printing Company, Minneapolis, 1890. 

MINNEAPOLIS, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT 
Hartsough, Mildred L., The Twin Cities as a Metropolitan Market, Uni¬ 
versity of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1925. 

MINNEAPOLIS, SOCIAL TRENDS 
Schmid, Calvin F., Social Saga of Two Cities, Minneapolis Council of So¬ 
cial Agencies, Minneapolis, 1937. 

Bibliography 

The following bibliography is a partial list of books, articles and 
manuscripts consulted in preparation of this volume. There were, in addi¬ 
tion, innumerable newspaper items consulted and a number of personal 
interviews. It was considered necessary to omit the several hundred foot¬ 
notes of the original manuscript, but completely annotated manuscripts of 
this history may be consulted at the Minnesota Writers’ Project and at the 
Minnesota Historical Society. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, MEMOIRS, AND REMINISCENCES 

"Auto-Biography of Major Lawrence Taliaferro,” Minnesota Historical 
Collections, Volume 6, St. Paul, 1894. 

Bliss, John, "Reminiscences of Fort Snelling,” Minnesota Historical Col¬ 
lections, Volume 6, St. Paul, 1894. 


[ 85 ] 


Coolbaugh, Frank C., “Reminiscences of the Early Days in Minnesota, 
1851 to 1861,” Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. 15, St. Paul, 
1915. 

Dick, Helen Dunlap, "A Newly Discovered Diary of Colonel Snelling,” 
Minnesota History, Vol. 18, No. 4, December, 1937. 

Forsyth, Thomas, “Fort Snelling, Colonel Leavenworth’s Expedition to 
Establish It in 1819,” Minnesota Historical Collection, Vol. 3, St. 
Paul, 1880. 

Godfrey, Harriet Razada, “Diary of the First White Child Born in Minne¬ 
apolis,” Minneapolis Journal, February 20, 1927. 

Hale, Mary Thayer, Early Minneapolis, privately printed, Minneapolis, 
1937. 

Leonard, William E., “Early Days in Minneapolis,” Minnesota Historical 
Collections, Volume 15, 1915. 

Newson, Mary J., “Memories of Fort Snelling in Civil War Days,” Min¬ 
nesota History, Volume 15, No. 4, December 1934. 

Sibley, Henry H., “Reminiscences, Personal and Historical,” Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Volume 1, St. Paul Reprint 1872. 

Stevens, John H., Recollections of Minnesota and Its People, Tribune Job 
Printing Co., Minneapolis, 1890. 

Ueland, Andreas, Recollections of an Immigrant, Minton, Balch Company, 
New York, 1929. 

Van Cleve, Charlotte O., Three Score Years and Ten, Harrison & Smith, 
Minneapolis, 1888. 

Walker, Thomas B., “Memories of Early Life and Development of Minne¬ 
sota,” Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. 15, 1915. 

Williams, J. Fletcher, "Reminiscences of Mrs. Anne Adams,” Minnesota 
Historical Collection, Vol. 6, St. Paul, 1894. 

MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS 

Atwater, Isaac, History of the City of Minneapolis, Munsell and Company, 
New York, 1893. 

Bisbee, Herman, Memoir of The Reverend Seth Barnes, Williamson and 
Cantwell, Cincinnati, 1868. 

Folwell, William Watts, A History of Minnesota, Minnesota Historical 
Society, Vol. 1, St. Paul, 1922. 

Gay, Eva, A Tale of Twin Cities, Thomas A. Clark Press, Minneapolis, 
1889. 

Hartsough, Mildred L., From Canoe to Steel Barge on the Upper Missis¬ 
sippi, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1934. 


[ 86 ] 


Hartsough, Mildred L., The Twin Cities as a Metropolitan Market, Univer¬ 
sity of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1925. 

Hudson, Horace B., A Half Century of Minneapolis, Hudson Publishing 
Company, Minneapolis, 1908. 

Johnson, C. W. (comp.), A Tale of Two Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul 
Compared, Johnson, Smith and Harrison, Minneapolis, 1885. 

Lyman, George D., John Marsh, A Pioneer on Six Borders, Charles Scrib¬ 
ner’s Sons, New York, 1930. 

Minnesota in The Civil and Indian Wars, 1861-1865, State of Minnesota, 
St. Paul, 1891. 

Neill, Edward D., and Williams, J. Fletcher, History of Hennepin County 
and The City of Minneapolis, North Star Publishing Co., Minneapolis, 
1881. 

Newson, T. M., Pen Pictures of St. Paul and Biographical Sketches of Old 
Settlers, Published by the Author, St. Paul, 1886. 

Parsons, E. Dudley, The Story of Minneapolis, Published by the Author, 
Minneapolis, 1913. 

Petersen, William J., Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi, The Water 
Way to Iowa, Iowa Historical Society, Iowa City, 1937. 

' Potter, Merle C., 101 Best Stories of Minnesota, Harrison and Smith, Min¬ 
neapolis, 1931. 

Schmid, Calvin F., Social Saga of Two Cities, Minneapolis Council of So¬ 
cial Agencies, Minneapolis, 1937. 

Shutter, Marion D., History of Minneapolis, Vol. 1, S. J. Clarke Pub¬ 
lishing Company, Minneapolis and Chicago, 1923. 

Steffens, Lincoln, The Shame of the Cities, McClure, Philips & Co., New 
York, 1904. 

Thompson, Ruth, The Twin Towns at the Falls of St. Anthony, Colwell 
Press, Minneapolis, 1926. 

West, Nathaniel, The Ancestry, Life and Times of Hon. Henry Hastings 
Sibley, Pioneer Press Publishing Company, St. Paul, 1889. 

ARTICLES 

Baker, James H., "Address at Fort Snelling in the Celebration of the Cen¬ 
tennial Anniversary of the Treaty of Pike With the Sioux,” Minne¬ 
sota Historical Collections, Volume 12, St. Paul, 1908. 

Baker, James H., "A History of Transportation in Minnesota,” Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Volume 9, St. Paul, 1901. 

Blegen, Theodore C., "The Pond Brothers,” Minnesota History, Volume 
15, No. 4, September 1934. 

Bromley, Edward A., "Old Government Mills at the Falls of St. An¬ 
thony,” Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. 10, Part 2, St. Paul, 
1908. 


[ 87 ] 


"Early Days at Fort Snelling,” Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. 1, 
St. Paul, Reprint 1872. 

Edsall, Samuel Cook, "Reverend Ezekiel Gear, D.D., Chaplain at Fort 
Snelling,” Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. 12, St. Paul, 1908. 

Flanagan, John T., "Captain Marryat at Old St. Peters,” Minnesota His¬ 
tory, Volume 18, No. 2, June 1937. 

Heilbron, Bertha L., "Christmas and New Years on the Frontier,” Minne¬ 
sota History, Vol. 16, No. 4, December 1935. 

Hicks, John D., "The Organization of the Volunteer Army in 1861, With 
Special Reference to Minnesota,” Minnesota History Bulletin, Feb¬ 
ruary, 1918. 

Johnson, Richard W., "Fort Snelling From Its Foundation to the Present 
Time,” Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. 8, St. Paul, 1898. 

Neill, E. D., "Occurrences in and Around Fort Snelling,” Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Volume 2, St. Paul, Reprint 1889. 

Rogers, George D., "History of Flour Manufacture in Minnesota,” Min¬ 
nesota Historical Collections, Volume 10, Part 1, St. Paul, 1905. 

Stanchfield, Daniel, "History of Pioneer Lumbering on the Upper Mis¬ 
sissippi and Its Tributaries, With Biographic Sketches,” Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Volume 9, St. Paul, 1901. 

Woodhall, Allen E., "William Joseph Snelling,” Minnesota History, Vol¬ 
ume 7, No. 3, September 1926. 

MANUSCRIPTS 

Gyllstrom, Paul, Notes on Early Minneapolis, manuscript, Manuscript 
Division, Minnesota Historical Society. 

Hennepin County Historical and Old Settlers Association, Proceedings, 
1867-1871, bound manuscript volume, Minneapolis Public Library. 

NEWSPAPERS 

WEEKLY 

Minnesota Democrat, (St. Paul) "More New Mills,” "The Minnesota Uni¬ 
versity,” June 17, 1851. 

St. Anthony Express, 1860. 

State Atlas (Minneapolis and St. Anthony), 1865. 

S£. Paul Pioneer and Democrat, 1857-1858. 

DAILY 

Daily Democrat (St. Paul), "The Rise and Progress of St. Paul,” October 
28, 1854. 

Daily Minnesotian (St. Paul), 1854-1858. 

Minneapolis Journal, 1923-1927. 

Minneapolis Tribune, 1867-1900. 

St. Anthony Falls Evening News, 1860. 

St. Paul Daily Pioneer, 1865-1868. 

St. Paul Daily Press, 1866. 


[ 88 ] 


Index 


Accault, Michael, 9 
Abolitionists, convention of. 52 
Adasville, 46 

Agriculture, 68, 72; at Fort St. Anthony, 
13; first agriculturists, 14; Indians in, 
19; growth of, 40, 43; after Civil War, 
55; at Minneapolis, 44, 47; export of ag¬ 
ricultural products, 57. See also Live- 
tock; Hennepin County Agricultural So¬ 
ciety 

Agricultural Products, importation of, 40; 
export of, 57; Northwest wheat at dis¬ 
advantage, 63; wheat as leading North¬ 
west crop, 68 
Albion, 46 
All Saints, 44, 46 

American Board of Foreign Missions, 20 
American Fur Company, 17, 29; conflict 
with Taliaferro, 23; store in St. An¬ 
thony, 34 

Ames, Albert Alonzo, 24 
Ames, Alfred Elisha, 24, 45, 47 
Ames, Rev. C. G., 52 
Angell, Henry, 30 
Anthony, Wayne, steamboat, 37 
Ariel, steamboat, 22 
Astor, John Jacob, 17 
Athenaeum, 5 3 
Atwater, Judge Isaac, 39 
Auguelle, Antoine, 9 

Bachus, Electa, 3 3 
Babbitt, W. D., 52 
Backus, E. W., 72 
Bailly, Alexis, fur trader, 14 
Baker, Benjamin F., trader, 21 
Baker’s Settlement, 21, 22 
Balloon, Zeppelin’s flight in, 26 
Banfield Island, 3 8 

Banking, first bank in St. Anthony, 51; 

chain banking, 69. See also Finance. 
Baptists, 36, 61 
Bassett’s Creek, 57 
Bean, Reuben, 32, 42 
Beltrami, Giacomo, 17 
Benson, Lyman L., 37 
Bernhardt, Sara, 59 
Bliss, Major John, 19 
Blue Earth Reservation, 40 
Boom Island, 32 
Bottineau, Pierre, trader, 29, 32 
Bradley, Miles A., banker, 51 


Bremer, Fredrika, novelist, 61 
Bridal Veil Falls, 37 
Bridge Square, 47, 5 3, 57, 72 
Bridges, 41, 5 3 

British, fur trading in U. S., 9, 11; agitation 
among Indians, 22 
Buffalo, New York, 70 
Building construction, boom 48; after fire, 
59; 1927, 71 
Bull, Ole, violinist, 51 
Burroughs, Ira, 30 
Business Directory, 38 

Calhoun Beach Club, 71 

Camp Coldwater, 12, 21 

Cantonment New Hope, 12, 14, 17 

Carpenter, Sergeant Nathaniel, 28 

Carver, Jonathan, explorer, 9, 27 

Cass, Governor Lewis, of Wisconsin, 1 3 

Cataract House, 53 

Catholics, 3 5 

Catlin, George, artist, 20 

Census dispute, 67 

Center Block, 5 3 

Chalybeate Springs, 51 

Chambers, Thomas, 47 

Cheever House, 37 

Cheever, William A., 37 

Chief Mahgossau, 13 

Chippewa (Ojibway) Indians, warfare with 
Sioux, 16; games, 20; need for mission, 24 
Christmas, at Fort Snelling, 18 
Churches, First Presbyterian, 20; Protes¬ 
tant, 35; festivals, 36. see also Catholics 
City Council, 51 

City government, forms of, 51; two main¬ 
tained, 5 8 
City Hall, 63 

Civil War, 21, 62; troops at Fort Snelling, 
25, 27; volunteers in Minneapolis, 53; 
encourages flour milling, 57 
Claim jumpers, 45, 48 
Clark, Charlotte O., 1 5 
Clark, Malcolm, 15 
Clark, Nathan, 13 
Clayton County, Iowa, 23 
Cleveland, Mrs. Grover, 65 
Congregational Church, 52 
Conner, E. H., 41 
Cooke, Jay, financier, 62 
Cruttenden, Joel, 34 
Cummings, Robert W., 30 
Cushing, Caleb, 30 


[ 89 ] 



Daily Minnesotian, newspaper, 50 
Dakota Territory, 5 5 
Danz Orchestra, 73 
David Copperfield, novel, 3 5 
Depew, Chauncey, 66 
Desnoyer, Stephen, 37 
Donnelly, Ignatius, 26 
Dugas, William, 30, 32 

Eastman, Captain Seth, 24 
Eastman, Rollins and Upton, 57 
Eatonville, 19 

Education, at Fort Snelling, 14; Sunday 
School at Fort Snelling, 15; Chaplain 
Gear as schoolmaster, 24; in St. Anthony, 
33; in Minneapolis, 46, 49; school for im¬ 
migrants, 61; Board of Education, 74. 
see also University of Minnesota 
Emerson, John, surgeon, 21 
Equal Right and Impartial Protection Claim 
Association, 46, 48 
Eustis, Mayor W. H., 67 

Fairs, 47, 61 

Falls City, steamboat, 38 
Falls, of St. Anthony. See St. Anthony 
Falls 

Ferry, 32, 40 

Finance, script issued, 50; first bank in St. 
Anthony, 51; Financial development of 
Minneapolis, 68; statistics, 69; crisis, 72 
Findley, Samuel J., 29 

Fires, schoolhouse burned, 49; need for fire¬ 
fighting equipment, 58; mill disaster, 63 
First Methodist Episcopal Church, 36, 40 
First Minnesota Regiment, 25 
First Presbyterian Church of Minneapolis, 
20 

Fisher, Jacob, 30 
Fletcher, Dr. Hezekiah, 45, 47 
Flour Milling, first attempt, 15; govern¬ 
ment grist mill, 29, 42; in St. Anthony, 
40, 56; effect of coopers’ strike, 60; after 
mill disaster, 63; captures world market, 
64; suffers from I.C.C. ruling, 70 
Floyd, John B., Secretary of War, 2 5 
Folsom, Edgar, 32 
Folsom, S. P., 33 
Forsyth, Major Thomas, 11 
Fort St. Anthony, cornerstone laid, 13; de¬ 
scription of, 15, see also Fort Snelling 
Fort Snelling named, 16; social life at, 18; 
dramatics, 21; squatters expelled, 22; im¬ 
portance declines, 25; troops at during 
Civil War, 25, 27; corrupt influences in 


sale of public lands, 42, 45; city planned 
on site, 50 
Foshay Tower, 71 
Foshay, Wilbur, 72 
Fourth of July, at Fort Snelling, 20 
Freight rates, 70 

French, attitude toward colonization, 9; 

inhabitants, 19; squatters, 29 
Fur trade, 9. See also American Fur Com¬ 
pany, Indian trade. 

Garrioch, Peter, 21 
Gear, Rev. Ezekiel Gilbert, 23, 3 5 
Godfrey, Ard, millwright, 30, 32, 52; 
appointed as postmaster, 33; settles west 
of river, 47 

Godfrey, Harriet Razada, 33 
Goodhue, James M., editor, 44 
Gooding, Amelia, 14 
Gorman, Governor Willis A., 48 
Governor Ramsey, steamboat, 38 
Greeley, Horace, editor, 55 
Green, Lieutenant Platt Rogers, 14 
Griffith, T. J., engineer, 41 
Groseilliers, Medard Chouart, sieur de, 9 

Hamilton, Mrs. Elizabeth S., 22 
Hamilton, James W., 15 
Harmon, Allen, 45 
Harrison’s Hall, 59 
Hastings, 5 5 

Hennepin Avenue, 46, 49, 53 
Hennepin County, organized, 46; issues 
script, 5 0 

Hennepin County Agricultural Society, 47 
Hennepin, Father Louis, passes site of Fort 
Snelling, 9; proposal to name Minneap¬ 
olis after, 46 
Hennepin Island, 31, 57 
Henry M. Rice, steamboat, 3 8 
Hindoo, steamboat, 3 8 
Hoag, Ada, 46 
Hoag, Charles, 46 

Hole-In-The-Day, Chippewa chief, 31 
Holidays, attitude towards, 3 8; see also 
specific holidays 
Horse racing, 61 

Hotchkiss, William A., editor, 49 
Hotels, 34, 37, 38, 49, 51, 53, 65 

Immigration, type of, 33, 39; after panic of 
18 57, 50; increase after Civil War, 55; 
Scandinavians, 61 

Indian Lands, claim extinguished, 29; title 
to timber, 31 


[ 90 ] 



Indians, French influence among, 9; tribal 
differences, 16; agricultural colonies, 19; 
whiskey sold to, 22, 24; American Fur 
Company, 23; worship St. Anthony 
Falls, 28; settlers’ attitude toward, 40; 
Sioux uprising, 54; see also Sioux, Chip¬ 
pewa 

Industrial development, retarded, 48; diver¬ 
sification of, 71 

Industrial Exposition Building, 65 
Industry, Minneapolis’ claim to industrial 
leadership, 5 8 
Irving, Sir Henry, 59 
Interstate Commerce Commission, 70 

Jackins, John, 45, 47 

"Jay Gould’s Banana Belt,” Northern 
Pacific Railroad, 64 
Jefferson, Barracks, 18 
Jobbing and wholesaling, 68 
Johnson, Lieutenant R. W., 3 5 

Kansas City, Missouri, 70 
Kaposia, 19 
Kegan Lake, 65 
Kemper, Bishop Jackson, 24 
'King, William S., 61 

LaCrosse, game, 20 

Labor, need of laborers, 39; wages decline, 
49; lack of during Civil War, 53; lum¬ 
berjacks, 56; strike, 60; first union or¬ 
ganized, 66; Minneapolis as market for, 
68; unemployment, 71; truck drivers’ 
strike, 72 

La Croix, Edmund N., 64 
Lady Franklin, steamboat, 3 8 
Lagrue, voyageur, 29 
Lake Amelia (Nokomis), 24 
Lake Calhoun, 19, 44 
Lake Harriet, 21, 70 
Lake Minnetonka, 51, 70 
Lake Nokomis, see Lake Amelia 
Lake of the Isles, 70 
Lamartine, steamboat, 37 
Land rush, 45 

Landry, Charles, voyageur, 29. 

Latin America, 72 

Law enforcement, 23; hanging of leaders of 
Sioux uprising, 26; need for jail, 58 
Lawyers, 59 

Le Sueur, Pierre Charles, at the Minnesota 
river, 9 

Leavenworth, Colonel Henry, expedition to 
establish fort, 12; clashes with Talia¬ 
ferro, 13 


Lennon, John G., 34 
Lewis, David, weaver, 57 
Liberal League, 59 

Libraries, see Public libraries; St. Anthony 
Library Association 

Liquor trade, 22, 39; see also Temperance 
Livestock, importation of, 44; in streets of 
Minneapolis, 59 

Long, Major Stephen H., exploration and 
report, 11; expedition to Red River, 17 
Loomis, Colonel Gustavus, 20, 24 
Loring and Fletcher, 63 
Louisiana Purchase, 9 
Lowry, Thomas, financier, 62, 66 
Lumber, scarcity of milled, 32; amount of 
timber supply, 30; workers in, 49; as 
medium of exchange, 50 
Lumbering, 28; eastern capital for, 30, 34; 
government mill, 14, 31; growth in pro¬ 
duction, 40; rise of, in Minneapolis, 56; 
decline, 67 

Macalester College, 65 
Mansfield, Richard, 59 
Manufacturing, 73 

Marryat, Captain Frederick, writer, 22 
Marsh, John, teacher, 14 
Marshall, Joseph, 34 

Marshall, William R., 32; opens store, 34; 
in territorial legislature, 34; first survey 
of Minneapolis townsite, 47 
Martin Chuzzlewit, novel, 3 5 
McDonald, John, 30 
McKinley, William, 65 
McLean, C. W., 52 
Medicine, 45; practice of, 24, 3 3 
Medicine Bottle, Sioux Indian, 26 
Menck, Henry C., 23 
Mendota, 12, 17 

Merchandising, 36, 47; first store, St. An¬ 
thony, 31, 34; merchants reluctant to 
accept script, 50 

Middlings purifier, milling process, 64 
Military, discipline, 18, 19, 22; obstacle 
against settlement, 42, 47; see also Fort 
Snelling, Civil War 
Mill disaster, 63 
Miller, Mary E., 46 

Minneapolis, 41, 44; naming of, 46; as 
vacation center, 51; industrial center, 5 5; 
flour milling at, 57; absorbs St. Anthony, 
5 8, 61; town government organized, 51; 
result of uniting cities, 66; financial cen¬ 
ter, 69; cultural position, 73 
Minneapolis Board of Education, 74 
Minneapolis Bridge Company, 41 


[ 91 ] 



Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, 64 
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 74 
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, 73 
Minnehaha Creek, 24, 47 
Minnehaha Falls, 51, 62 
Minnesota and Pacific Railroad, 54 
Minnesota Arts Council, 74 
Minnesota Central Railroad, 5 5 
Minnesota City, 50 
Minnesota Mill, 57 

Minnesota Pioneer, newspaper, 36, 44 
Minnesota River, 9, 50 
Minnesota Territory, organization of, 24; 
struggle over location of capital, 34; 
number of farms in, 1850, 44 
Minnetonka Mills, 63 
Missionaries, 20, 24 

Mississippi River, 9, 28, 50; ferry across, 
32; dispute over head of navigation, 37; 
see also Steamboat transportation 
Missouri Compromise, 21 
Mitropoulous, Dimitri, 73 
Monster Tonson, drama, 21 
Mousseaux, Charles, 44 
Municipal Auditorium, 71 
Muscatine, Iowa, 44 
Music, 51, 73 

Neill, Rev. Edward D., 3 5 
New England, immigrants from, 33, 35; 
cultural influence of, 3 5, 59; standard of 
comparison, 47, 5 8, 61; moral standards 
applied to Minneapolis, 64 
Newspapers, first newspaper in St. Anthony, 
39; St. Paul’s attitude towards St. An¬ 
thony, 44; first in Minneapolis, 49; com¬ 
ment on industrial development, 5 5; stir 
up Twin City rivalry, 661; see specific 
newspapers 

Nicolet, Jean, explorer, 9 

Nicollet Avenue, 70 

Nicollet House, 49 

Nicollet Island, 31, 3 5 

Nicollet, Joseph Nicolas, explorer, 20 

Ninth Federal Reserve District, 69 

North, John W., 3 5, 52 

Northern Pacific Railway, 64 

Northern Star, steamboat, 38 

Northfield, village, 58 

Northup, Anson, 34, 46 

Northwestern Democrat, newspaper, 49 

Northwestern Telephone Company, 63 

Norwegians, 61 

Nyberg, Nils, 61 

Oberhoffer, Emil, 73 


Old Main Hall, 53 
Ormandy, Eugene, 73 

Palmyra, steamboat, 29 
Panama Canal, 70 

Panic, of 1857, 49; of 1873, 62; of 1893, 
67; of 1929, 71 
Patch, Luther, 30, 3 1 
Patch, Marion, 31 
Patti, Adelina, 51 
Pembina, 17 
Pence Opera House, 59 
Philharmonix Orchestra, 73 
Pierce, Thomas W., 48 

Pike, Lieutenant, Zebulon M., expedition to 
Minnesota, 10; his treaty with the Sioux 
ratified, 11 
Pike Rapids, 3 0 
Pike’s Island, 10 
Pond, Gideon, 19, 44 
Pond, Samuel, 19, 44 

Population, of Fort Snelling reserve, 22; 
garrisoned at Fort, 1849, 24; of St. 
Anthony, 29, 33; census dispute between 
Minneapolis and St. Paul, 66 
Powers, Simon, 36 
Plympton, Major Joseph, 22, 28 
Postal service, 14; first postoffice, St. An¬ 
thony, 33; at Fort Snelling, 43; at Min¬ 
neapolis, 47 

Prairie du Chien, Wis., 12, 14, 16, 17 
Prescott, Philander, interpreter, 44 
Prize fights, 65 

Protestant Episcopal Church, 24 
Public lands, efforts to secure, 42, 43; sale 
of, 32, 47; claims on, 45 
Public Library, first in state, 35; Minneap¬ 
olis Public Library, 53; interesting secur¬ 
ing, 59 

Quarrying, first in Minnesota, 14 
Quinn, Peter, 29 

Radisson, Pierre d’Esprit, explorer, 9 
Railroad, opened to La Crosse, 51; between 
St. Anthony and St. Paul, 54; northwest 
route to Pacific, 64 
Ramsey County, 24, 48 
Ramsey, Governor Alexander, 37, 3 8 
Rantoul, Robert, 30 
Reachi, Joseph, voyageur, 29 
Real estate, boom in, 48; deflation of, 49; 

speculative madness, 56 
Red River, flood in 1826, 14; Long expedi¬ 
tion to, 17; — carts, 17, 21; — trade, 
36 


[ 92 ] 



Red Wing, village, 5 5 

Religion, first Protestant church in Upper 
Mississippi Valley, 20; first resident pas¬ 
tor of white community, 24; desire for 
churches, St. Anthony, 3 5; see also Mis¬ 
sionaries, specific churches 
Republican National Convention, 1892, 65 
Reserve Bank Organization Committee, 69 
River navigation, above St. Anthony Falls, 
29, 38; above St. Paul, 36; rafting of 
lumber, 56; modern river transportation, 
72; see also Steamboat transportation 
River St. Pierre, see Minnesota River 
Rogers, R. C., 40 
Rollins, Captain John, 34, 3 8 
Rum River, 30 
Russell, Lillian, 59 

Russell, Roswell P., merchant, 31, 34 

St. Anthony, village, description of, 1848, 
30; type of settlers, 33; ambition to 
become capital, 34; social life in, 3 5, 38; 
as head of navigation, 37; first newspaper 
in, 39; opening of suspension bridge, 41; 
interest in town across the river, 44; 
made part of Hennepin County, 49; 
issues script, 18 57, 50; united with Min¬ 
neapolis, 5 8, 61 

St. Anthony City, Cheevertown, 37 
S/. Anthony Express, newspaper, 39, 46, 47 
St. Anthony Falls, included in Pike’s treaty, 
10; sawmill built at, 14; grist mill at, 
15, 29; sale of water power rights, 30; 
Greeley’s opinion of, 55; collapse of, 60 
St. Anthony Library Association, 3 5 
St. Anthony Republican, newspaper, 52 
St. Charles Hotel, 34, 38 
St. Cloud, 3 8 
St. Croix River, 10, 29 
St. Louis, 10, 18, 56, 57 
St. Paul, 27, 35, 40, 44, 48, 50; early repu¬ 
tation, 24; opposition to its being capital, 
34; as a merchant city, 36; attitude to¬ 
ward St. Anthony, 41; railroad between 
St. Paul and St. Anthony, 54; maintains 
trade leadership in 1860’s, 5 5; rivalry 
with Minneapolis, 66 
St. Paul and Pacific Railway, 54 
St. Paul Gas Company, 26 
St. Peter, 5 5 
St. Peter’s River, 10 
see Minnesota River 
Sallie St. Claire Troupe, 50 
Sauk Rapids, 38 

Saw mills, 14, 32, 34, 40, 47, 56; last Min¬ 
neapolis mill closes, 67 


Scofield, Mary A., 46 
Scott, Captain Martin, 28 
Scott, Dred, 21 
Scott, General Winfield, 16 
Secombe, Rev. Charles, 52 
Selkirk Colony, refugees from, 14, 24, 42 
Shakopee, Sioux chieftain, 26 
Sibley, Henry Hastings, 17 
Sioux (Dakota) Indians, 22, 25; Pike treaty 
with, 10; Sioux-Chippewa warfare, 16; 
feeling against whites, 17; agricultural 
colony, 19; mission at Lake Harriet, 21; 
treaties of 1851, 24; see also Indian trade, 
Sioux uprising 

Sioux uprising, hanging of leaders, 26; ref¬ 
ugees in Minneapolis, 54 
Slavery, in Minneapolis, 51, 52 
Smith, Congressman Robert, 42 
Snelling, Elizabeth, 14 
Snelling, Colonel Josiah, arrives at Fort, 13; 
appointment to Jefferson Barracks, 18; 
character of, 18; proposal to name county 
after, 46 

Snelling, William Joseph, 15, 18 
Southern, tourists in Minneapolis, 51; trade 
halted by war, 54 
Speculators, 47, 49 
Spirit Island, 38 

Stagecoach lines, forerunners of, 34; be¬ 
tween St. Anthony and St. Paul, 36; sta¬ 
tions, 37 

Stanchfield, Daniel, 30, 31, 34 
Steamboat construction, 38 
Steamboat transportation, 18, 19, 22, 29; 
first in Upper Mississippi, 15; hazards 
above St. Paul, 36; efforts to reach St. 
Anthony, 37; to St. Anthony, 38; halted 
by Civil War, 54 

Steele, Franklin, sutler at Fort Snelling, 22; 
purchase of Fort reserve, 25, 50; rental 
for reserve, 26; claim on St. Anthony 
Falls, 28; seeks eastern capital, 30, 31; 
sells half interest in holdings, 34; influ¬ 
ence of, 43, 45 
Stephens, Rev. Enos, 36 
Stevens, Rev. Jedediah D., 20, 21 
Stevens, John H., arrival of, 42; farm in 
Minneapolis, 44 
Stevens, Mary, 44 
Stillwater, 55 
Stone, Frank, 52 
Street railways, 62 
Streets, description of, 53, 62 
Swan River, 30 
Swedish immigration, 61 


[ 93 ] 




Taliaferro, Lieutenant Lawrence, arrives at 
Fort Snelling, 13; relations with Indians, 
18; establishes Indian colony, 19; resig¬ 
nation of, 23 
Talcott, Orlando, 49 
Tapper, Captain John, 30 
Taverns, 37 
Taylor, Arnold W., 34 
Taylor, Zachary, 23 
Telegraph, 34 
Telephone, 62 

Temperance, community attitude, 39; or¬ 
ganization, 48 
Tenth Avenue Bridge, 37 
Territorial Legislature, 34 
Terry, Ellen, 59 
Textiles, 46, 5 5, 57 
Thanksgiving, 38 

Theatre, at Fort Snelling, 21; first in Min¬ 
neapolis, 50; hall with stage equipment, 
59 

Trade Unions, 60, 66, 72 
Traffic problems, 59 
Transportation, need for, 36 

see also Steamboat transportation. Rail¬ 
roads, Stagecoach lines, River navigation 
Tully, Andrew, 15 
Tully, John, 15 
Tuttle, Calvin, 30 
Twin City rivalry, 55, 66 

Universalists, 36, 37, 53, 74 
University of Minnesota, awarded to St. 
Anthony, 34, 74 

Verrall, John, composer, 73 


Verbrugghen, Henri, 73 
Village La-wyer, The, drama, 21 
Villard, Henry, 64 
Virginia, steamboat, 15 

Walker Art Center, 74 
Walker, T. B., 73 
Washington Avenue, 49, 53 
War of 1812, 11 
Washburn "A” Mill, 63 
Welles, H. T., 51 
West Hotel, 65 
Westphal Brewery, 65 
Whiskey, 43, see also Liquor trade 
White Buzzard, see Chief Mahgossau 
"Wildcat paper,” money, 50; see also 
Finance 

William Crooks, locomotive, 54 
Williams, Thomas Hale, 53 
Williamson, Rev. Thomas S., 20 
Willoughby, Amherst, 36 
Winnebago Indians, 40 
Winona, 5 5 

Winslow House, 51, 54, 65 

Winslow, James M., 51 

Winston, Eliza, 52 

Wood Lake, 54 

Woodman’s Hall, 5 0 

Woodman, Ivory T., 50 

Work Projects Administration, 72, 74 

World War, 70 

Yellowstone Expedition, 13 

Zeppelin, Count von, 26 


[ 94 ] 
























